Has anyone seen their gas bills for this month? Ours seems outrageous but this last month was quite cold. We just completed our first year as homeowners so perhaps this is normal. Just thought I'd see how y'all fared before calling Atmos. I don't smell gas anywhere but the difference from other months to now was stark enough to alarm me.

Charge Date: 01/18/2018
Meter Read Date: 01/18/2018
Consumption: 87.00 CCF
TOTAL DUE $98.11

By comparison, last January and February we were billed for 31 and 37 CCF respectively.


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Ours tripled from the highest in 10 years.

Doubled from December highest ever

How big is your house? What gas appliance(s) do you have? I live in a moderately sized duplex and my bill was ~$62.Normal for this time of year is around $40-50. I attributed the increase due to the fact I was out of town for 12 days (during the cold spell with a hard freeze) and had the thermostat set at 75* the whole time.

mine jumped to $92 this month

carodz said:

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Has anyone seen their gas bills for this month? Ours seems outrageous but this last month was quite cold. We just completed our first year as homeowners so perhaps this is normal. Just thought I'd see how y'all fared before calling Atmos. I don't smell gas anywhere but the difference from other months to now was stark enough to alarm me.

Charge Date: 01/18/2018
Meter Read Date: 01/18/2018
Consumption: 87.00 CCF
TOTAL DUE $98.11

By comparison, last January and February we were billed for 31 and 37 CCF respectively.

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I'm guessing that you have a water heater, range, and furnace as your gas appliances. The furnace was probably on 4-5 times as much as usual, and is the biggest gas hog.

I'm in Katy, and neighbors posting on next door had similar bill increases (2-4x their typical bill)

Atmos seems to do this almost every January. I don't think they did it last year, but in previous years the January Bill was always 3 to 4 times higher than every other month.

I checked online today and didn't have the bill yet but the graph for January usage was showing a huge spike from last month. It was way out of whack based on our usage of heater, hot water, cooking from Dec to Jan.

It just seems fishy that this same thing happens every January.

$142 this month. Previous high was around $60.

91_Aggie said:

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logged in again... $101 for Jan after being at $20 to $30 for the last 24 months.
consumption in Dec = 6
Consumption in Jan = 90

There is no way our habits and usage changed to consume 10x as much.

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This is exactly where I'm at. We used 7 CCF last month to 87 this month. I read my meter and it seems correct. I'm just astounded that we used as much gas in one month as pretty much the entire previous year combined.

It's because they are doing "estimated" use based on temperature.

How is it "estimated" use when they actually read the meter and give us the numbers? Ours was insane last month -- a spike like we've never seen, more than double what we've ever spent before.

2.5x increase from last month. I feel like this happened last year too. Couple months got high then it went back to normal the rest of the year.

The Atmos man was in my neighborhood and I got the scoop. My meter has a box in front of the read dials and it sends a signal multiple times each day so it is NEVER read by a meter reader and is 100% accurate but you have to request it if you want it. He said most of my neighborhood IS NOT on electronic read so he reads their meter every OTHER month so 6 months are read and 6 months are estimated in a 12 month cycle.

Quote:

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How is it "estimated" use when they actually read the meter and give us the numbers?

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I'm in Castlegate. I'm pretty sure that we do not have an electronic reader. My bill will say either 'actual' or 'estimated.' Even with estimated bills, a meter read usage is given on my bill. Usually my estimated meter read is not as high as what is listed on my bill, even though it's been at least a week since my bill was produced (I check my meter as soon as I receive the bill). I then know that when Atmos finally does come out to get an accurate usage, the next bill will correct for the overestimation on the previous estimated billing cycle.

Interesting, ours doesn't say either estimated or actual, just the numbers and the date it was "read." It's just over twice last month's and twice last or 2016's January bill. I realize it was cold last week, but wow!

We do average billing for our electricity and gas. We pay the same every month for 12 months. At the end of the year, we either have a credit, or owe a little. We have been doing it for years and makes it easy to make a budget

Received my bill today 138CCF avg temp during billing cycle 46 total bill 143.00 last month 51CCF avg temp during billing cycle 56 total bill 71.00 I have a electronic read meter so it is never read by a meter reader

gettingitdone said:

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We do average billing for our electricity and gas. We pay the same every month for 12 months. At the end of the year, we either have a credit, or owe a little. We have been doing it for years and makes it easy to make a budget

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That's the way to do it.

My bill in the summer is 22 bucks a month I expect cold winter months to be higher so I would rather just pay what I owe instead of prepaying for the winter months in the summer

I would like Chace to address this since SO MANY people have seen this huge increase. this shouldn't be a matter of "private info" for each person.

I'm sure they probably got many calls directly to their offices about it.

Just be transparent and explain how a person can go from 6 units to 90 units from December to January, and HOW so many different people had this huge increase.

The few days of freezing temps can't account for that big an increase.

An explanation would be fantastic, especially since nowhere on my bill does it say "projected" or "actual," which makes me think they really read the meter and it really is jumping that much. This is the best I can do for a pic...

...which apparently is nothing, although it did show in my window as the picture!

Would love to hear what Chace has to say, as well.

I get a huge increase every year about this time, but once the meters are read, I always get a credit back. I think it was '15, I did not pay for Feb or Mar as they were credited in full. (Really just paid in advance essentially)

ETA:

Ok, Actually checked my bills. I went up usage by around 363% this past month. I think it is actually read every month as it gives the figures under "meter reading".

Granted, I only went up to 29 CCF from 8 CCF. So nothing earth shattering. And I can assume it is just from my increased heater use. I do not see anything out of the ordinary or can't be explained on my billing.

91_Aggie said:

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Atmos seems to do this almost every January. I don't think they did it last year, but in previous years the January Bill was always 3 to 4 times higher than every other month.

I checked online today and didn't have the bill yet but the graph for January usage was showing a huge spike from last month. It was way out of whack based on our usage of heater, hot water, cooking from Dec to Jan.

It just seems fishy that this same thing happens every January.

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Is this a for real post?

91_Aggie said:

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I would like Chace to address this since SO MANY people have seen this huge increase. this shouldn't be a matter of "private info" for each person.

I'm sure they probably got many calls directly to their offices about it.

Just be transparent and explain how a person can go from 6 units to 90 units from December to January, and HOW so many different people had this huge increase.

The few days of freezing temps can't account for that big an increase.

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Have you gone outside and read your meter?

Carnwellag2 said:

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91_Aggie said:

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I would like Chace to address this since SO MANY people have seen this huge increase. this shouldn't be a matter of "private info" for each person.

I'm sure they probably got many calls directly to their offices about it.

Just be transparent and explain how a person can go from 6 units to 90 units from December to January, and HOW so many different people had this huge increase.

The few days of freezing temps can't account for that big an increase.

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Dude gas bills are higher when the weather is colder.....simple concept.
The past 8 weeks have been colder than usual....with several below freezing stretches ( our usual is to go below freezing for a few hours at night).


When people use more gas, their bill goes up

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Only if they have a furnace and / or gas water heater.

We have a heat pump and electric water heaters and ours was almost tripled.