Heat and Gas bill during winter

you pay $.50 / therm all in? My bill from National Grid is usually closer to $1/therm including delivery + supply charge. Wonder if they are gouging me somehow.

southsloppy

in Heating and Cooling 7 years and 6 months ago

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david-lewis | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Hi, we recently purchased our first brownstone and are in the process of remodeling. We are still in the first few phases so no one currently lives in the property and renovation/ demo will likely start in the Spring.

Now, I just received my first National Grid and almost off my chair. How do we keep costs at bay? It seems ridiculous to pay hundreds of dollars every month when no one lives in the property? Are we able to turn the heat and gas off since pipes will need to be replaced anyways, or will we risk water damage in the long run? OR is this just par for the course?

The property is over 100 years old and heat runs on old cast iron heaters. The one thermostat we’ve seen is an old Honeywell one with the adjustable knob……

Please, does anyone have advice on how we should handle this?

Much thanks!

greenworks | 7 years and 6 months ago

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We feel your pain. Tho we weren’t gut renoing, we too were SHOCKED at our first gas bill.

Don’t know about shutting gas off but we were able to install this awesome thermostat on our old two wire boiler https://www.amazon.com/ecobee4-Alexa-Enabled-Thermostat-Sensor-Amazon/dp/B06W2LQY6L/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1516449839&sr=1-1&keywords=ecobee4

You can adjust and monitor indoor temp remotely, and set schedule much like other smart thermostats. We have one earlier version but at the time we bought the system the capabilities and analytics were far superior to Nest or the smart Honeywell.

You can set this to around 60 or so and monitor temp from afar. It will send you an alert if temp gets below a temp you set. You can track when it fires and even get ratings on how efficient you are. We love it.

greenworks | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Oh also even tho you’re gutting soon and probably don’t want to spend a ton of time sealing off every minor air infiltration point, in these old houses there are usually some big ole draft locations that could be easily plugged up. Might be worth it to locate the major draft spots and plug those up too.

Master Plvmber | 7 years and 6 months ago

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You can winterize the building during renovation and ask your plumber/contractor to provide for a single active bathroom for workers’ use while the new pipes are going in. You can then shut your gas for the time being.

eman134 | 7 years and 6 months ago

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turn the thermostat down to 38 degrees

ellenlourie | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Good heating system will keep gas bill around $200 a month in the winter.

CarmenR | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Seconding Gennady- we have a smaller house (3 stories, 2650sqft) but our bill hasn’t broken $200 a month and my husband likes it to be sweltering on our parlor floor. It’s generally far less.

stickerhappy | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Carmen, you have steam or hot water heat? That seems so low for all those sq ft.

yudashasom | 7 years and 6 months ago

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If you turn the water off and drain the system you don’t need to heat the building

CarmenR | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Stickerhappy, we have hot water heat (and gas for heating water for showering, etc.)

WRPListings | 7 years and 6 months ago

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This is an interesting thread. We also just bought, and so far our bills are around $300 for the winter months. Is that typical, or is there a problem? I was expecting more, so I was ok with that amount…but $200 sounds even better. What are some ways to bring it down further? For those who say $200, was that the cost for this past month when it was so brutally cold?

Master Plvmber | 7 years and 6 months ago

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There are lots of variables, of course. I’m not sure where Gennady is getting his $200 benchmark from but there is a big difference between attached rowhouses vs corner units vs free-standing homes, and steam vs hot water vs radiant floor vs forced air, and big house vs little house, etc.

WRPListings | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Mine is attached with hot water heater. Four floors, but only about 2800 square feet

ko.michele | 7 years and 6 months ago

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I live in Brooklyn in a relatively small, freestanding, 100 year old townhouse, 3 stories, hot water heat, and my winter National Grid bills have been about $280 a month.

CarmenR | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Our house is originally from 1855, is attached on both sides, we have two above-ground stories and one 40% below grade floor (smaller windows) and we gutted it 3 years ago so most of it is brand-new: insulation, hvac, windows, doors, etc. We’ve been really happy with our electric and gas bills, even in the hottest/coldest times of year (so far!)

SoSlope | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Few thoughts:
1) I agree with the suggestion to turn the water off and drain the system.

2) I would be careful before you follow @eman134’s suggestion to lower the temperature to 38%. If you have pipes in exterior walls (or even some interior walls that have drafty connections to exterior walls), it is very easy for the interior of the wall to drop below freezing even if the house is at 38 degrees. An old house will often have spots in the walls that are surprisingly cold.

3) I wouldn’t put any weight in @Gennady’s figure of $200. It depends on size, insulation, drafts, temperature setting, etc. You cannot use one generalized figure for all houses.

4) If you are looking at a bill that covers late December and early January, remember that that period was unusually cold for a long period (10+ days without rising above freezing), so you should expect to have a higher than normal bill for that period.

ixmfrteyhywobz | 7 years and 6 months ago

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If you’re remodeling while living elsewhere I assuming that the monthly heating bills must be a tiny part of your budget? Warm weather is coming soon so I would focus your attention on other matters such as the upcoming stop work orders and mechanic’s liens.

camp6ell | 7 years and 6 months ago

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Our rowhouse was fine all winter long with the heat off during gut renovation. Turn off water, check location of pipes and if you must, set thermostat to 38-49 degrees.
BTW, we used to have a old Victorian stand-alone house in Vermont and kept the thermostat at 40 degrees while we were away and the pipes never froze, so don’t piss away your money by setting it to 60 degrees as someone above suggested.

RobertGMarvin

in Heating and Cooling 7 years and 6 months ago

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I think what camp6ell suggests would be fine with MOST houses, but not all. One of my neighbors had the pipes to their kitchen sink freeze during the last cold spell while they were home, with the heat ON. I presume those pipes were near an outside wall, so, if you have similarly run pipes, keep kitchen cabinet doors OPEN.