On 4/13/2010 7:22 AM, ransley wrote:
On Apr 12, 10:27 pm, wrote:
Jeff The Drunk wrote :





On Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:40:03 -0700 (PDT), 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?

I didn't know a meter could be read only once a year. Around here
they alternate between estimate and read each month. And here we get
to lock in a 12 month price and choose the lowest between several
different suppliers. My largest monthly bill is Feb, this year was
around $150.00.

If the company doesn't have access to the meter for the alternate reads,
they must come at least once per year.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

They dont " Must Do " anything.

It is a regulatory requirement in my state. They must read the meter at
least once/year. It doesn't really matter anymore because the two gas
suppliers that serve our region put remote reading registers on all
meters that are not directly accessible maybe three or four years ago.
Then the one company that serves my house put remote reading registers
on all of the meters late summer of last year.

Along the same lines the water company put outside accessible readers on
all of their meters maybe 5 years ago and the electric company swapped
out all of their meters last year with meters they can read over the
powerline. It also is a great help for them because they no longer have
to depend on folks calling in when someone hits a pole. When they loose
contact with meters they know the scope of the problem and right where
to go.