Moved from a 1600 square foot home to a 2800 square foot home last June. In the old home, my ATMOS gas bills would be between $15-75 a month, higher in the winter. In the new home, I've gone from $50 in November to $119 in December, and just paid a $165 one for December into January.

I have two has furnaces, the same gas dryer I had at the old house, and a pool. There is no heater connected to the pool.

So I figure it has to be my water heater and/or furnaces.

The water heater is in the garage and is so old it will likely pop at anytime. I believe it is 16 years old. It has no insulation around it nor do the pipes.

The furnaces are fairly new and I just had my upstairs furnace repaired in November costing me around $900. The thermostat upstairs was set for an electric heater where my A/C unit would come on with the heater and now its programmed for a gas heater. Just a coincidence?

I do feel the insulation upstairs is lacking a bit but I'm concerned the water heater is working inefficiently. I did turn the thermostat on the water heater up in December. Thoughts? Gas leak somewhere? I don't smell anything.

Location ?

What year was your previous house built in ?
What year was current house built in ?

What size tank was the old house heater versus the new house tank size ?
Even if the water heater is really old it would probably only add $10 a month today at current prices to the bill versus a newer one.

Also the price of gas is higher than last winter

http://m.nasdaq.com/markets/natural-gas.aspx?timeframe=18m

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2800 square foot home last June

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Well, that's a significant upgrade. 1200 square feet is asking it to heat, essentially, another house. You could also have higher ceilings in your new house, which causes you to run the heat more.

$175 for winter for 2800 square feet is a little on the higher side, but not unreasonable.

helgs said:

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2800 square foot home last June

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Well, that's a significant upgrade. 1200 square feet is asking it to heat, essentially, another house. You could also have higher ceilings in your new house, which causes you to run the heat more.

$175 for winter for 2800 square feet is a little on the higher side, but not unreasonable.

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This.

Your new house is 75% bigger.. you should expect a similar increase in heating and cooling.

That being said, my house is 2800sf, in Denver, and we run the fireplace almost every evening for several hours, and our december gas was $110. So it seems high to me.

helgs said:

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Quote:

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2800 square foot home last June

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Well, that's a significant upgrade. 1200 square feet is asking it to heat, essentially, another house. You could also have higher ceilings in your new house, which causes you to run the heat more.

$175 for winter for 2800 square feet is a little on the higher side, but not unreasonable.

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between electric and gas, I pay around $350/month in the winter for a 1900 sq ft house.


Wrong emoticon. Was supposed to be a sad face.

Wheatables02 said:

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$165

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My Dec to Jan was about $195, and that was with a pretty conservative application of the heat.

Does seem high

I am about 2750 sq ft, 1 furnace, stove, fireplace (on about 6 times last month for 2-3 hours each time) 2 tankless water heaters and my bill was only $43.

We keep the house in the mid to upper 60's so we may not run the furnace as much, on the flip side got a few that take extremely long showers since the hot water never runs out.

Poor insulation? Possibly a leak somewhere? Inefficient gas water heater? Or some combination of all.

JP76 said:

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Location ?

What year was your previous house built in ?
What year was current house built in ?

What size tank was the old house heater versus the new house tank size ?
Even if the water heater is really old it would probably only add $10 a month today at current prices to the bill versus a newer one.

Also the price of gas is higher than last winter

http://m.nasdaq.com/markets/natural-gas.aspx?timeframe=18m

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Flower Mound

1997
2001

one story house and now in a two story. the newer tank is larger, not sure how much.

hurricanejake02 said:

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Has the wife being teaching hot yoga in the back room without telling you?

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Blue star for you sir. Way to lurk.

Gas fireplace?

I had a similar situation on this past months bill. It tripled from last months. We hadn't changed anything with our heater use hot water etc. I checked the reading on our gas meter and compared to our bill and it happened to be much lower than the stated use on our bill. I called Atmos and they are sending a technician to reread the meter and adjust my bill. Glad I checked the meter!!

Similar deal - our bill tripled! I figured it was the wife using the gas fireplace all day, but I'll check the meter now to be sure.

Used once. In November.

My house is 3500 sq ft and my winter gas bills rarely go over $100, even when we do actually have a cold month. Built in 2004.

dlance said:

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My house is 3500 sq ft and my winter gas bills rarely go over $100, even when we do actually have a cold month. Built in 2004.

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How high are your ceilings? I've got 12 foot ones now and had 10 at my previous house. That's definitely a factor.

Wheatables02 said:

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dlance said:

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My house is 3500 sq ft and my winter gas bills rarely go over $100, even when we do actually have a cold month. Built in 2004.

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How high are your ceilings? I've got 12 foot ones now and had 10 at my previous house. That's definitely a factor.

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Downstairs they are 9 or 10 except the living room and entry are vaulted to 18ish.

dlance said:

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Wheatables02 said:

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dlance said:

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My house is 3500 sq ft and my winter gas bills rarely go over $100, even when we do actually have a cold month. Built in 2004.

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How high are your ceilings? I've got 12 foot ones now and had 10 at my previous house. That's definitely a factor.

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Downstairs they are 9 or 10 except the living room and entry are vaulted to 18ish.

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Do you live in Houston or someplace temperate in the winter?

I am in OKC with about 2x your gas bill and only 900 sq ft less house. We had a few days of 5 deg weather last month and my house was build in ~1920 with lots of original windows.

62strat said:

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helgs said:

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Quote:

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2800 square foot home last June

---

Well, that's a significant upgrade. 1200 square feet is asking it to heat, essentially, another house. You could also have higher ceilings in your new house, which causes you to run the heat more.

$175 for winter for 2800 square feet is a little on the higher side, but not unreasonable.

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This.

Your new house is 75% bigger.. you should expect a similar increase in heating and cooling.

That being said, my house is 2800sf, in Denver, and we run the fireplace almost every evening for several hours, and our december gas was $110. So it seems high to me.

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Using your $75 high bill at the old house and multiply it by .75 (75%) plus $75 brings you to $131 based on last winter's gas price.

Last Jan gas was ~ 2.4 and today it is ~ 3.3
So $131 x .375 (37.5% higher) plus $131 gets you to a $180 bill for the current conditions.

$175 is not through the roof.

I have 4 figure utility bills in the summer.

SpeedyMilt said:

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dlance said:

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Wheatables02 said:

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dlance said:

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My house is 3500 sq ft and my winter gas bills rarely go over $100, even when we do actually have a cold month. Built in 2004.

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How high are your ceilings? I've got 12 foot ones now and had 10 at my previous house. That's definitely a factor.

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Downstairs they are 9 or 10 except the living room and entry are vaulted to 18ish.

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Do you live in Houston or someplace temperate in the winter?

I am in OKC with about 2x your gas bill and only 900 sq ft less house. We had a few days of 5 deg weather last month and my house was build in ~1920 with lots of original windows.

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In Houston. That's why I said "even in a cold month" since the OP is in Dallas. Neither Big D nor Houston have OKC like weather.

My house is 2800 or so and my last bill felt higher than I normally see (without actually going and looking into it.) Been in the house 10 years, so I have a history.

It was around your number.

Did Atmos raise the gas rate some?

TxAG-010 said:

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I had a similar situation on this past months bill. It tripled from last months. We hadn't changed anything with our heater use hot water etc. I checked the reading on our gas meter and compared to our bill and it happened to be much lower than the stated use on our bill. I called Atmos and they are sending a technician to reread the meter and adjust my bill. Glad I checked the meter!!

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My wife works at ATMOS. From what she's said I'd make this my first stop.

Just an update. Atmos came and reread my meter. My initial bill was $150 and they have since adjusted the bill to $80 after initially misreading the meter.

I'd look at two areas:

Windows...how old?
HVAC...how old?