Natural Gas costs...

[custom]

You got to be kidding me! I received my bill today for $200!! My house is only about 1200 sq ft, I leave the thermostat at around 71, and I crank it down to 55 if I am going to be gone all day. Not only that, but it hasn't even been that cold yet...I can imagine that a family of four in a slightly larger home would have double this bull with all the hot water and everything....where oh were will this stop??

 

[EEmain]

You really don`t want to know... $350+ per month

 

[CDB]

Join me in the polar bear club. I never use the heat.

 

[custom]

For real...it would be better to go buy a bunch of electric radiant heaters and have them all over the house.

 

[EEmain]

Electric($150 per non A/C) is not much better in these parts:run: Every time I look up some one is asking the PUC for an increase. The Gas Co. got a 4.3% then a 19.8(?) it all added up to over 24% this year alone. Don`t ask about my water bill either:blink: used to pay $75 quarterly a few years ago now $48 per.

 

[BingeAndPurge]

I thought my gas bill was bad at about 120/month in the winter. I never understood how 15/month in the summer jumps a hundred bucks in the winter months. Good motivation for hitting the gym and just showering there.

 

[natedogg]

Damn and I thought 70 bucks a month for electric sucked. Glad I don't have gas.

 

[CDB]

I thought my gas bill was bad at about 120/month in the winter. I never understood how 15/month in the summer jumps a hundred bucks in the winter months. Good motivation for hitting the gym and just showering there.

That's what I used to do. Workout early in the morning when no one was there, go for a swim, shower and then kick it in the heated whirlpool for 15 minutes reading the paper. I even lit up a few cigars in there with no one bitching about it. Those were the days I tell you. I'd come out of there and my shoulders were so loose you would swear I got laid.

 

[max-rot98]

Tell me about it my heat is paid for and my electric is always 23 bucks or less a month. Having a small apartment is a killer.:sad:

Sorry, to make everyone feel worse.

This may be an option though. My parents keep their gas bill low because they have been using a woodburning stove in their house since I was young. Thing heats the whole house too. My dad installed a system by the stove to carry heat from there to the upstairs. Works great.

 

[BigVrunga]

Tell me about it!! NG prices here are nearly 100% higher than they were last year!! My electric/gas bill last month was $245, and I live in a small 2 bedroom apartment. Electric was only ~$90 out of that, too.

Fucking highway robbery, I tell ya. As soon as I get a house Im building a windmill

BV

 

[CDB]

This may be an option though. My parents keep their gas bill low because they have been using a woodburning stove in their house since I was young. Thing heats the whole house too. My dad installed a system by the stove to carry heat from there to the upstairs. Works great.

One of my friends does that too. She actually bought the house recently, and it already had the wood burning stove in there and the previous owners left her two cords(sp?) of firewood in the backyard wood shed. I watch her dogs sometimes for her, and I fired that thing up once and I was two rooms away with the door closed and still sweating to death. It's an effective alternative in all honesty.

 

[BigVrunga]

Until there's no more wood to burn!

 

[revodrew]

330 for gas 160 for electric. House built in 1906:jaw: :wtf: :nutkick: :rasp: Those are my feeling when I get the bills!!

 

[max-rot98]

Until there's no more wood to burn!

Lol yeah, I think my parents get good firewood for $100 a truck gets them through half the winter. Not too bad huh. Thing is my dad has guys at his company bust up pallets(sp?) from material deliveries and uses that wood too.

 

[GTOman]

$300 for Gas and $85 for Electric this month, and it was pretty mild. That seems way higher than last year. Then again, I heat my garage as well. Oh well if you wanna play you gotta pay!

 

[custom]

The GTO doesnt like the cold?

 

[intv]

It'll only get worse next year. The ad agency I work for picked up the local natural gas association as a client a couple of months ago. Guess we've got our hands full with this campaign!

 

[BigVrunga]

Fuel and power companies can kiss my lily white ass. Im going to build my own hydroelectric damn and sell my power back to them. It might not happen till Im 60, but Ill do it i swear

BV

 

[tattoopierced1]

next house i move into/build I'm going all electric and then getting solar panels. I wanna get as far away from a power company's arm as possible.

 

[custom]

Sort of related topic...I saw a show dealing with Brazil...they used sugar derived ethanol instead of gasoline and it is more than twice as cheap to make and buy, plus the cars cost about the same and have about the same power as gas powered cars.

THen I wondered why in the blue hell we're fumbling with crappy hybrids and hydrogen cars when the ethanol technology is available NOW. The whole thing is kind of absurd, really.

 

[SJA]

$272 gas/electric....:nutkick:

 

[GTOman]

The GTO doesnt like the cold?

The Goat is pretty old, need to keep 'er warm!

 

[jmh80]

Matt,
To supply even a large fraction of the cars in the US with EtOH, we'd have to use like half of the US to grow corn.

They can do that sort of stuff in Brazil because they have more land and less cars than we do.

And EtOH based gasoline isn't always cheaper.

 

[EEmain]

Matt,
To supply even a large fraction of the cars in the US with EtOH, we'd have to use like half of the US to grow corn.

They can do that sort of stuff in Brazil because they have more land and less cars than we do.

And EtOH based gasoline isn't always cheaper.

I saw a show about Carls Corner Texas. Willie Nelson and this guy Carl are selling soybean based Diesel... building a plant to make make it.
Could this be feasible? Or is it the same as with the corn?

Also being you are in the know what is the deal with the OIL SHALE?

 

[jmh80]

Oil shale is doable - about like these oil sands in Canada.

The thing is, the price of oil has to be really high (like now and in the 70's/very early 80's) because it is very expensive to extract.

We had a huge investment in Wyoming/Colorodo that they closed in 1982 (it's refered in those states to as Black Monday or whatever day it was on because a large number of people were put out of work). This happened when the price of oil dropped.

They have to heat the rock up to get the oil to flow out of it. There are a few technologies out there - one of them is to inject steam into the rock then pressure it out.

I think the problem now is that many of the lands with the shale have been bought by the states (when it became uneconomic), so I don't think the acreage is there anymore. Hopefully that will change, as there is oil to be extracted and I think we are all interested.