On Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:06:39 -0700 (PDT), ransley
wrote:

On Apr 12, 1:40*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
I was at a party last night and a neighbor who works for a commercial
HVAC company explained his method of ripping off the gas company.

He says that gas is a commodity and therefore is typically cheaper in
the summer than in the winter. In the summer he "over-reads" his meter
by 35 - 40 therms on average, paying for the extra therms at the
cheaper price.

In the winter, he "under-reads" his meter by the same amount, paying
for fewer of the expensive therms.

Since he is sending in his card every month, and he is staying within
"average use" for a homeowner, they only come to read his meter once a
year and it's always near the end of winter when his over-reads and
under-reads have just about cancelled out.

As they ask on Mythbusters - Busted, Confirmed or Plausible?

We had our gas meter estimated, Not Read for -- 4 -- years, so it does
happen all the time that a meter man will bypass a place he cant get
into, if you are paying a resonable bill you wont be bothered. In
Chicago the electric co and gas co do this all the time. Right now I
am trying to get electric meters read that havnt been read for 8
months.

Why aren't the littlem women staying home, to let in the meterman,
like they're supposed to?