Natural Gas Consumption

[PurpleBunny89]

Looking for any help from people who live in Ontario in regards to consumption of natural gas from Enbridge.

Our new place has a gas fireplace/stove and will be used as the main heat source in the home in the winter. The home is about 800-900sqft. From a little research online I couldn't find any actual rates in dollar amounts from the enbridge website but I did find that they continue to charge you a customer fee and a delivery charge even when you do not use any gas from them which is completely unreasonable and unfair in my opinion. We won't be using their product for 8 months of the year so why should we have to pay monthly charges for it?

Anyways! So I was wondering approximate prices you guys pay for your natural gas in Ontario. What appliances do you have that use it? What are the customer and delivery charges like?

We also have electric baseboard heaters and am wondering if they would just be better to use because we'd then be saving on being charged two delivery charges and the "customer charge" all together. Sorry but I just can't get over having to pay for something we won't use for 8 months out of every year.

So please do share! I know there is a electic/hydro thread kicking around so lets do a natural gas one too!

[Frugalbigmama]

I am North of you and my Customer charge is $20

Delivery to me and Transportation to Enbridge charge depend on the gas supply charge (the more you use the higher those 2 charges are)

[Frugalbigmama]

$124.95 PLUS HST is my last bill ($54.87 was the gas supply charge) Crazy

[momof5boys]

Here in BC the natural gas prices are so low....electricity keeps going up so I'm glad our home is heated by natural gas. Stove uses natural gas as well but hot water tank is electric...sigh...

[PurpleBunny89]

$124.95 PLUS HST is my last bill ($54.87 was the gas supply charge) Crazy

Omg, expensive!!!

So there is three different re-occuring charges?

customer charge
delivery
transportation

and then the actual gas charge?

Are the first three charges always charged whether you consume or not?

[lilo0003]

We have a 3 bedroom bungalow, heat with natural gas, fireplace, stove, hot water heater and dryer are NG as it the BBQ. I pay 91.00 a month equal billing & by July we are paid for the year(starts in Sept). Personally I think that’s reasonable with 4 of us using all this. Not to mention the teenage boychild that showers for ages with the hot water at max.

[PurpleBunny89]

We have a 3 bedroom bungalow, heat with natural gas, fireplace, stove, hot water heater and dryer are NG as it the BBQ. I pay 91.00 a month equal billing & by July we are paid for the year(starts in Sept). Personally I think that’s reasonable with 4 of us using all this. Not to mention the teenage boychild that showers for ages with the hot water at max.

That is reasonable.

I asked my mom and she has NG furnace and water heater, is on equal billing and pays $94 a month. She has a 3 bedroom townhouse with my brother and sister who live at home.

[Frugalbigmama]

[QUOTE=PurpleBunny89;5798555]Omg, expensive!!!

So there is three different re-occuring charges?

customer charge
delivery
transportation

and then the actual gas charge?

Are the first three charges always charged whether you consume or not?[/QUOTE

Yes, customer charge is every month and the other are based on usage.

[PurpleBunny89]

[QUOTE=Frugalbigmama;5802631]

Omg, expensive!!!

So there is three different re-occuring charges?

customer charge
delivery
transportation

and then the actual gas charge?

Are the first three charges always charged whether you consume or not?[/QUOTE

Yes, customer charge is every month and the other are based on usage.

so hypothetically then the last two charges should be 0 if you're not consuming anything. Lets see when the time comes, fingers crossed.

[super807]

If you have a natural gas line to your house, you will be paying the monthly customer charge of $20 even if you don't use any natural gas.

Wow, you only need to heat four months of the year? We would never be able to do that. We have our furnace on from about October to late April.

We pay $78 in equal billing every month. We have a natural gas furnace, and a natural gas hot water heater. We have about 1100 square feet, and are two adults and a teenage girl who uses a lot of hot water.

I am happy to heat with natural gas. Before moving to Ottawa we lived in a town that doesn't have natural gas. We had an electric forced air furnace. Our house was larger, but our electricy cost was much higher than our current hydro plus natural gas. And we were only two people then. And we had a wood burning fireplace too.

[PurpleBunny89]

If you have a natural gas line to your house, you will be paying the monthly customer charge of $20 even if you don't use any natural gas.

Wow, you only need to heat four months of the year? We would never be able to do that. We have our furnace on from about October to late April.

We pay $78 in equal billing every month. We have a natural gas furnace, and a natural gas hot water heater. We have about 1100 square feet, and are two adults and a teenage girl who uses a lot of hot water.

I am happy to heat with natural gas. Before moving to Ottawa we lived in a town that doesn't have natural gas. We had an electric forced air furnace. Our house was larger, but our electricy cost was much higher than our current hydro plus natural gas. And we were only two people then. And we had a wood burning fireplace too.

last two weeks of November - first two weeks of March. Its pretty warm otherwise where we live.

[Ciel]

$160/month equal billing plan-used to be about $130/month. Dad freaked. Natural gas stove and hot water heater. Oven was ko'd during most of summer due to glitchy contact board until it was replaced in Sept. Gas BBQ used sporadically but mostly in July & August when too hot to cook indoors. Delivery charge is about $20. Older small house (about 60 years old and drafty) and we keep the thermostat to about 70F but it kicks in at 68F.
Think of the fixed costs-the gas pipes don't pack up and walk away when you don't use them and you expect them intact and working on demand when you do use them. However, I wish I knew how much of fixed costs apply to infrastructure and not payroll!

[PurpleBunny89]

So we did get our first bill for 2 weeks so I'm going to for the most part ignore that in factoring our monthly usage. Our full month bill came to a whopping $95!! I nearly pooped my pants. $95 to heat a 800sqft bungalow!

I spoke to a customer service rep who said that the $20 or $25 customer charge is charged every month whether you use or don't use gas. He also told me though that similar people in my situation disconnect in the spring as a "move-out" and then re-connect in the fall as a "move-in" and to make sure I worded it that way because if I was honest about closing down the account for the summer months it would be a $75 disconnect charge but if you move out and move back in again then its just a $25 set up charge.

So financially it makes more sense to move out and move back in once a year

[BumbleB]

I had no idea!!! I will definitely be calling re the move out move in... We have been non-stop with Enbridge since 1990. OMG on the savings we could have had!!

So we did get our first bill for 2 weeks so I'm going to for the most part ignore that in factoring our monthly usage. Our full month bill came to a whopping $95!! I nearly pooped my pants. $95 to heat a 800sqft bungalow!

I spoke to a customer service rep who said that the $20 or $25 customer charge is charged every month whether you use or don't use gas. He also told me though that similar people in my situation disconnect in the spring as a "move-out" and then re-connect in the fall as a "move-in" and to make sure I worded it that way because if I was honest about closing down the account for the summer months it would be a $75 disconnect charge but if you move out and move back in again then its just a $25 set up charge.

So financially it makes more sense to move out and move back in once a year

[PurpleBunny89]

I had no idea!!! I will definitely be calling re the move out move in... We have been non-stop with Enbridge since 1990. OMG on the savings we could have had!!

Yeah, i'm just too cheap for that. I figured there had to be another way. Dependent on how long you leave it disconnected for its better just to pay the new $25 set up charge.

Keep your old account number handy too because you can give that when setting up the new account so they waive the deposit and reference letter.