Natural Gas deregulation is a farce

Natural Gas deregulation is a farce.

This weekend I looked into finding a lower cost nat gas company but realized quickly that it was a was of time because of the 'distribution charge'.

The cost of the gas in my area is currently ~ 0.7 cents but the 'distribution charge' ranges from $0.24 to 0.45. The difference between going with the lowest price gas supplier and the highest would probably save me less then couple of dollars a year.

Reply to
Mark Harris
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Hi, What is your measuring unit? Up here it is by the Giga Joule. NG is dirt cheap now too much supply.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

the mea. unit is a therm. Yes the gas is dirt cheap, but with the high 'distribution charge' my bill would almost show no change if the gas was free.

Mark Harris wrote:

Hi, What is your measuring unit? Up here it is by the Giga Joule. NG is dirt cheap now too much supply.

Reply to
Mark Harris

The question I would ask is if your gas bill is that much of a problem, what have you done to reduce your usage?? where are you located?? what appliances are you running?? how old are they?? what are their efficiency ratings??

FWIW, I installed a 4ton 14SEER dual fuel/hybrid system with 2 stage w/ECM blower 80%AFUE gas furnace in my home here in south Mississippi last January. My power bill for last month was $125 and my gas bill was only $37.

Compared to last year before I installed the new system, my power bill was $178 and my gas bill was $72. I also installed a new gas water heater over the summer.... that helped a lot too.

With only the water heater and gas clothes dryer, my summer gas bills run $17/mo.... down from $25

Every little bit helps.

Reply to
Steve

Hi, People don't even bother installing 80% furnace up here. They are selling onew with 90% or better with government rebate. I am in Calgary Alberta where NG and oil is produced. Utility companies keep inventing new charges like fore-mentioned. Gas alone is very cheap likewise electricity too. I locked both prices for 7 years and still 5 years to go. If price drops below that of locked one, I can cancel the contract but I don't think it'll ever happen.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

The question I would ask is if your gas bill is that much of a problem, what have you done to reduce your usage?? where are you located?? what appliances are you running?? how old are they?? what are their efficiency ratings??

FWIW, I installed a 4ton 14SEER dual fuel/hybrid system with 2 stage w/ECM blower 80%AFUE gas furnace in my home here in south Mississippi last January. My power bill for last month was $125 and my gas bill was only $37.

Compared to last year before I installed the new system, my power bill was $178 and my gas bill was $72. I also installed a new gas water heater over the summer.... that helped a lot too.

With only the water heater and gas clothes dryer, my summer gas bills run $17/mo.... down from $25

========================================= Actually Steve I also have a dual fuel 4 stage system and that's part of the problem. Because it's a 2 stage HP I oversized the unit (compared to a single stage). Because it's oversized, I can stay on HP down to ~20 degrees. Because I use so little nat gas, I'm permanately stuck in the $0.45 per therm distribution charge. So my gas bill is relatively high percentage of my heating bill even though almost all my heat comes from the HP. That's when I realized the cost of the actual gas could be zero and I still have a high gas bill.

Reply to
Mark Harris

yes, oversized is a big problem... as it is anywhere. Maybe if you changed your balance point??

Reply to
Steve

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yes, oversized is a big problem... as it is anywhere. Maybe if you changed your balance point?? ======================================

NOOOO Oversize is great when you have a 2 stage system. For me it's always cheaper to be able to stay on the heat pump.

It's just annoying that my gas bill has only dropped sligtly because of the high front loaded distribution charge on gas.

Reply to
Mark Harris

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