Your Nat Gas Bill

[Todd]

I know there's lots of variables in this but I just wanted to get a basic idea of what to expect if I install my Jotul Allagash in my 700-1000 sq ft finished basement. I plan on keeping the temps around 60-65 and turn it up as needed when we are down there. I think I pay around $1 per therm NG when you figure in all the Xcel Energy charges. Anyone out there have a small gas stove in a similar sized space that can tell me what they're gas bills are running? Thanks

 

[pen]

I'd say the easiest thing to figure might be what it would cost to run the thing on low for 24 hours?

Not sure if this works as I'm trying it or not but if this unit were run on low steadily it looks like the stove runs at 14000 btu/hr on low (if I'm reading things right). If 14,000 btu is equal to 0.14 therm, then that would be 3.36 therm for 24 hours of steady run.

 

[Todd]

Thanks Pen, that's one way of looking at it. I'm looking at setting the thermostat at 60 then turning it up as needed during the day which should only be about 4 hours per day if that. I was thinking more in the line of 1-2 therms per day but I'll have to wait and see.

I'm surprised I couldn't find many threads here with guys bragging about their low gas bills like you see over in the wood stove forum.

 

[pen]

Do you know the ambient temperature of this area without heat during the winter?

I'm wondering if you can find a calc somewhere for you to put in info about the insulation, ambient temp, etc, and figure out how many BTU's you'll need to raise the temp to what you want on average and work from that?

 

[Todd]

Not sure about ambient temp since I've always had a wood stove burning down there.

 

[BrotherBart]

About all you can do is figure cost per hour on high and low. Freestanding gas stoves hover around 80-85 efficiency so figure the inputs at high and low multiplied by the efficiency factor and you will have your min and max gas bill exposure.

 

[Todd]

After all my figuring I think my bill should come in around $30-60 per month so I don't think that's bad at all. I guess I could always go back to wood if it doesn't work out.

 

[stovelark]

Hi Todd, its hard to guesitimate with a gas stove, here's why. You plan on using it sparingly, but find you like it when you're down there with it, so assume higher usages. 1.00/therm?? That is nice is correct, here in CT its much more, like 2.00 but still the best bargain (NG) of the fuels. I'd run the stove med (20,000 btu) and assume 8-10 hrs a day usage, 2.5 therms. That's still only 2.50 a day, pretty reasonable to me. Good luck and let us know how it works out. Great heater you have there.

 

[Todd]

Yeah, thanks guys, it's hard to figure, so I guess I'll just see how it goes. Most of it depends on the wife since she gets up early and goes downstairs to get ready for work and she is the one that complains when it dips below 70. I could keep it 50 down there if it were up to me.

 

[pen]

Yeah, thanks guys, it's hard to figure, so I guess I'll just see how it goes. Most of it depends on the wife since she gets up early and goes downstairs to get ready for work and she is the one that complains when it dips below 70. I could keep it 50 down there if it were up to me.

I'm sure she's worth the extra expense!

Keep us posted as I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions.

pen

 

[Seasoned Oak]

They usually sock you $15-20 a month just to have the meter hangin there. Our bill for an empty house is $30-33 a month. $16 for the meter charge and the rest for a water heater turned down to vacation mode. Im glad i dont have to pay a stove charge for my wood stove sitting idle all summer.

 

[Todd]

They usually sock you $15-20 a month just to have the meter hangin there. Our bill for an empty house is $30-33 a month. $16 for the meter charge and the rest for a water heater turned down to vacation mode. Im glad i dont have to pay a stove charge for my wood stove sitting idle all summer.

Same here, about $30 per month after adding up meter charge, distribution, low income help and actual amount of gas burned.

 

[jharkin]

[Edit - got the latest bill and realized I was off on the math]

We get off easy here with only a $6.50 monthly charge for the meter, but our cost of gas is a bit higher at about $1.40 with all delivery fees right now for the first 20 therm, then $1.10 for the rest. It usually goes up a bit in winter.

One thing to check if you already have gas for hot water or a range is if adding the gas stove would allow you to switch to a lower gas heating rate. Our utility has different rate schedules for heating and non-heating customers.

 

[blades]

Over the past 5 years switched most every thing over to NG. Only thing that isn't is the oven , too danged expensive to replace. I do not use it very often so it really isn't in the equation. NG portion of bill last mo. $17. About double that for the cold months. Got to put a blanket on the hot water heater before late fall.

 

[Todd]

Just got hammered with my last gas bill! It pretty much doubled from the previous month, $145 and I burned up 160 therms. We did have some very cold weather and my son was home from the Navy and hung out in the basement most of his 10 days home. I guess I need to keep a closer eye on that stove down there.

 

[Fake coal burner]

I have about the same size of gas stove. My house is 100 years old single pane windows every 5 feet original Brick. Only isolation is in the attic. 100.000 btu furnace. I turn off the big boy in the day. We were 0 L 26 H F last month . Ever thing is gas. Gas stove ran 18 hours a day and part of the night. Furnace was used only 6 hours at night. Total nat. gas bill $ 140 . Keep the up stars at 80 deg F. with stove running flat out. Turn on the big boy at 75 f at night.In fact the gas stove has saved 1/3 of the nat. gas bill per month in the past years,

 

[Todd]

I have about the same size of gas stove. My house is 100 years old single pane windows every 5 feet original Brick. Only isolation is in the attic. 100.000 btu furnace. I turn off the big boy in the day. We were 0 L 26 H F last month . Ever thing is gas. Gas stove ran 18 hours a day and part of the night. Furnace was used only 6 hours at night. Total nat. gas bill $ 140 . Keep the up stars at 80 deg F. with stove running flat out. Turn on the big boy at 75 f at night.In fact the gas stove has saved 1/3 of the nat. gas bill per month in the past years,

That doesn't sound bad at all for an old house like yours. I'm only heating about 1000 sq ft insulated walkout basement and it really surprised me that my gas bill doubled from the previous month but we did have -20 low temps for about a week and we were keeping the basement warmer than I'd really like.

I called my energy company and they said nothing looked out of the ordinary and most others saw their bills go up due to the cold weather. I may have them check the meter.

 

[Fins59]

Just got hammered with my last gas bill! It pretty much doubled from the previous month, $145 and I burned up 160 therms. We did have some very cold weather and my son was home from the Navy and hung out in the basement most of his 10 days home. I guess I need to keep a closer eye on that stove down there.

160 therms @ $145 comes out to .90 a therm. I think that's right...math was not my favorite subject.

I checked my bills for past few months. I was paying .73 per therm up until around Dec 1, and now it jumped to .82 per therm. Wonder if it's going to climb higher yet due to this propane fiasco?

I burn wood steady from around 7 AM to 12 midnite so that helps greatly on the gas bill. And I burn oak slabwood so that type wood is reasonably priced.

 

[Todd]

Yeah, the price per therm isn't all that bad right now but who knows where it will go from here. I just can't believe I burned through 160 therms in one month. I turned the stove down this month so it should help but this has been the coldest Jan in 40 years and I'm not expecting a big drop.

 

[Todd]

New gas bill in the mail today and I used 111 therms compared to 160 last month. Quite an improvement by just turning the stove down 3 degrees. Average temp was just about the same as last month but the billing period was a couple days shorter than previous. Still think I could do better if the wife would let me turn it down a couple more degrees.

 

[WiscWoody]

Does anyone lookup the heating degree days for your locations? I look it up on weather underground at times. For here it's at 5218 from 11/08/2013 to today.