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SQLit
 
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oups.com...
I'm at a loss. I can't figure out why my gas bill is as high as it is,
while my neighbor's bills are MUCH lower.

I moved into this house a couple years ago and I've had sticker shock
every time the gas bill arrives. The new house matches my old one as
far as appliances as I brought them with me. The only difference is
the furnace and water heater.

As an example; the largest bill I've ever had at my old house was $125
where the largest bill to date at the new house was $320. The house is
bigger by 600sqft but that should only account for winter bills...

I use to think the old furnace was the culprit but my bills are high
all year around. (I even replaced it without much effect) A typical
bill at the old house was $12-$20... the new house never has a bill
below $100, even when the furnace is off all month!

I started suspecting that the meter was bad so I had NIPSCO come out
and check it several times until they replaced it on my insistance. It
didn't help. While they were there they checked of leaks too.

I just talked to the old owner of the house and found out that he too
had the meter swapped. So even he knew something was up.

So my gas bill last month was $101 and my neighbor's bills average $25.
I don't know what to do next. The only thing left to try is replacing
the water heater but I can't imagine that it is even capable of using
that much gas.

The NIPSCO guy shut the water heater off for 20 minutes and checked the
meter. No gas was used. This weekend I'm going to shut it off for a
few hours and see if the meter moves. When I relight the water heater
I'm going to see how much it consumes over X amount of time in case
it's a leak after the shut off valve.

In the meantime, I'm open to any suggestions. If my natural gas bill
goes down, I might be able to fill my car up with the savings!

Thanks for reading this long post.


Never heard of this with gas, water and electricity yes a long time ago.

Turning your meter off is not the way to find out where the gas is going.
Leave the meter on and turn off ALL of the appliance valves. If the meter
moves now you know there is either a leak or another load.

If it is the water heater it would be running all of the time. I once had a
hot water line broken under the kitchen floor, gas bill went from 30 in the
summer to 70. Since the water heater was next to the washer it was pretty
easy to figure out that it was running all of the time. Water bill took a
leap as well.

I had a customer that bought 20 acres of land with a barn and a huge home on
it. I was called in when the kitchen was being remodeled and they needed new
electrical circuits. I went to the service and found no main but 6 200 amp
fusible switches. Ok a bit strange but nothing wrong so far. One switch had
no wires on it so we labeled it as a spare. Kitchen had a panel, barn had
two panels and the sleeping area of the house had a panel. That left one
switch unaccounted for, we continued with the remodel and the owner got the
first electric bill, well over $400.00 and it was not even hot yet in the
Arizona desert. Second bill was over $600.00. Owner was really upset. Rumors
had it that the previous owner was a drug dealer and there was a underground
storage room. I got a tracker and started chasing down the wires. Got to
the mystery wires and they ran straight off the property heading into
another development of homes. I waited until dark, I then turned off the
switch and low and behold the neighbors homes all when dark. I removed the
wiring from the switch and cut it off close to the concrete so it could
never be re connected again, per the owners orders. Electric bill dropped
to the $200 range.

Utility meters are historically accurate. I have seen 3 bad electrical
meters in 35 years. One was bad toward the customer. State regulators take a
dim view of a utility not having accurate equipment. I will bet you either
find another load or a leak.. I am betting on the load.