Enbridge wants to increase heating (gas) by 40%~ cold winter~ give me a break!

[Shwa Girl]

Watchout for this , this winter And budget accordingly.

This winter is going to be a bill shocker for most

we have been reading our meter monthly and calling in the meter reading
so our equal billing amount has dropped since last season
plus summer was so nice -- not too hot or not to cold -- we used little energy

[walkonby]

anyone else on the equal billing plan? Well it is nice to pay the same amount every month, but with this bad winter and the increase I will be paying a whopper of a bill come June/July! Remember the good old days when you had that June/July bill that was so low, it was almost a free months worth? No more.

My neighbour was on it , but they messed up his equal billing big time..so he went back to regular billing ...high bills in winter , small bills in summer.

It took him almost a year to sort out the equal billing ..lot of errors on his bill & mistakes ..they couldn't even do a simple thing right

I just looked back at my June/July horror show of a bill that I had paid.....good thing I was sitting down when I reviewed this again. My equal billing was fine, they never messed anything up, paid $114.00 every month, then the " makeup " bill in June/July was $280.00 !! Ouchy huh??

[Shwa Girl]

I just looked back at my June/July horror show of a bill that I had paid.....good thing I was sitting down when I reviewed this again. My equal billing was fine, they never messed anything up, paid $114.00 every month, then the " makeup " bill in June/July was $280.00 !! Ouchy huh??

Equal billing has begun again from September to next Spring/Summer.

[Frugalbigmama]

I don't do equal billing. They set it up that way but I asked them to stop it. I like to pay my actual bill each month. Scared for the winter bills

[momof5boys]

Here in BC we also have the option of equal billing. I don't trust this system at all....I just pay the bill each month as it comes and save up for the winter months when the bills are higher. We moved a year ago to a new home - can't believe the difference - much better insulation for sure b/c the heating costs are so low now.

[Shwa Girl]

Here in BC we also have the option of equal billing. I don't trust this system at all....I just pay the bill each month as it comes and save up for the winter months when the bills are higher. We moved a year ago to a new home - can't believe the difference - much better insulation for sure b/c the heating costs are so low now.

agree with you about insulation and the difference it can make to the monthly bill

[MortgageQueen]

We're thinking of installing a pellet stove. We heat with wood, but even that's getting expensive.
Anyone have one of those? ANy words of wisdom?

[tjthemanto]

just some basic do it yourself insulation like caulking , weather stripping doors & windows etc also reduces your heating bills a lot.

Also letting sunlight in during the day, by opening the blinds etc.

[Ciel]

One of the Union Gas entities (West) gets a decrease for July 1 rates but the other two get increases. Happy Canada Day...
https://www.oeb.ca/rates-and-your-bi...ural-gas-rates

http://globalnews.ca/news/3560845/on...ates-increase/

[GoodBoy]

Had me worried based on the subject of the thread. Then saw it was over two years old! No longer worried.


Sent from my iPhone

[brunt]

We're thinking of installing a pellet stove. We heat with wood, but even that's getting expensive.
Anyone have one of those? ANy words of wisdom?

We had one in our previous house about 20 years ago. Overall a very positive experience.

There were two related issues with out stove, one of which would be easy to fix now:

1. There was a small leak so that soot would escape. This is a common issue with any wood burning device. Over the course of a year, there would be an extremely fine dust like film over everything in the house. Not a large amount, but perceptible after four months of use.
2. The stove only works while you have electricity. The augers are electrical as are the fans. If your power goes off (as happened probably once per month at our old place, the stove immediately stops and does not get a chance to properly shut down. Starting it back up is not easy when everything is full of pellets.

The first issue is I believe, unavoidable. Perhaps we had a bit of a lemon, but every house that regularly uses wood heat of any form has this issue - some worse than others. Ours was probably the best that I had seen, but my wife is a neat freak, and this is the reason that we don't have one in this house.

The second issue can be solved by using an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS). These were not so available at the time, but now Staples regularly has them on sale. In the same situation now, I would design my own, but this is not recommended for most.

It was a bit of a trick to get started. We finally got a system. We got a supply of those small ketchup cups like you see in the fast food places. In the thrift store, we picked up a junky pot and some candles for just a couple of dollars. We would put the pot on the stove, melt a candle, add some wood shavings, stir it up and spoon the resulting concoction into the little cups. One of these cups in the burn area of the stove would start the fire nicely.

I worked at home and was able to put two bags of pellets in per day easily. Our 1400 square foot house never had our regular furnace come on during the winter unless we were away.

[GoodBoy]

You just replied to a three year old post. Is the OP still around?


Sent from my iPhone

[Ciel]

You just replied to a three year old post. Is the OP still around?
Sent from my iPhone

Yes, OP is around. She posts often. I bumped this thread as summer gas price increases are not fun to follow. Enbridge bought out Spectra this year (job cuts followed) and Spectra happens to be parent corp to Union Energy/Gas. Every quarter, gas prices change for customers. It's getting to be annoying.

[Ciel]

Oh and the additional carbon taxes for utilities that are hidden in the distribution and delivery charges...double grr.

[macw1960]

Anybody have any idea why our equal billing is $34.00 a month and we always have a credit in the summer and our neighbour's bills our in the $70.00 range?

We have a gas furnace, hot water tank, stove and barbecue. We get our meter read and it is correct.