Cut off gas, frugal or unwise?

[myrdale]

Good evening everyone.

The furnace in my house is powered by natural gas. Over the past couple of months, I've had the pilot light cut off. I have quite literally used 0.0000 therms of gas.

Over that time, I'd received two bills. One $35 and the second at $25. In each case the expense was totally surcharges, mainly a pass though charge (basically they charge you a fee for having gas piped to your house).

This pass though charge varies one month to the next, and has nothing to do with how much gas you use. I'd have to add all my bills for the past year up, but it is roughly $300 just in surcharges every year. Earlier today, I called and requested my service be cut off.

During the winter months I have used some gas, $30 worth on average, but then they stick me with these extra charges.

I figure before winter arrives again, I will have enough saved to buy a couple of good electric heaters from the service charges alone. Yes my power bill will be higher during the winter, but I only plan on heating the rooms I am using verse heating the entire house (well it is a small house). Additionally I will be paying for services rendered, not for alot of non-sense surcharges.

The one note is that if I do get the gas cut back on, it will cost $85 connect fee. I should have near double that saved in surcharges by winter.

My only regret is I didn't do it sooner.

[Daylily]

What kind of electric heaters are you talking about? Would these be safe to keep running even if you weren't home? What if there was a cold snap and you really did need the whole-house heating?

It's kind of hard to give an answer without knowing what part of the country you live in.

[sweeps]

I agree with Daylily. If you live in Arkansas you can probably get away with it. If you live in Minnesota, probably not. Your house needs to maintain a certain temperature in the winter to avoid frozen pipes and structural damage.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Sounds fine to me. You obviously do not live in Minnesota if you can get through a winter month with only $30 of gas usage. A neighbor of mine got angry with our gas company and had service cut off at least 20 years ago! They use electric heaters and cold water! That is a long lasting grudge. Our winters can go down to -10F, though infrequently.

I like the oil filled electric heaters now available. but you would not want to turn them on and off a lot as the heat up & cool down times are long. But for steady, thermostatically controlled heating of a small space, they are nice and there is not hot spot which could set aflame a paper, curtain, or towel thoughtlessly cast aside.

[cptacek]

Good idea! Even with the $85 surcharge if you do get the gas turned back on later, you will come out ahead.

[myrdale]

I live in NW Georgia. We do occassionally have a couple of nights of pipe busting weather every year though. Running or not, the furnace would atleast keep the underside of the house warm from the pilot light. I do keep faucets dripping though.

As for the style of heaters, just your basic plug it in the wall space heater. Nothing I would want to throw a shirt on top of course. Probably in the $50 to $80 range each for two of them. I don't know what the average wattage is off hand.

[LuxLiving]

I'm with Joan - look for those new ones that look like the old-timey radiators. They're oil-filled and sealed tight and do keep a small room nice and toasty! My mom had a few and when we needed heat for CashHappySon's basement efficiency apartment, then that's what we went for. It does keep it warm and there's no danger if it tips over, or gets a stray towel, etc. No, none of us intend to drape stuff there, sometimes it just happens. Better safe than sorry.

We found out about those surcharges on FILs house when we kept getting gas bills with no one living in the home.