Outrageous gas bill (house, water heater, live in)

[Mrichardson21]

We live in a 1500 sq ft house (older with some updates) and our normal gas bill is less than $50/month. For Dec 2016 it was close to $400 & Jan 2017 is close to $500! Is this normal? We keep our heat on auto at 69 degrees at night. Any advice on how to bring it down or what the issue could be??

[Mr_Geek]

Cold weather + bad/no insulation + old and or leaky windows + inefficient heater can easily give you a bill that high during a cold spell.

[Mrichardson21]

Unfortunately all those things apply since we are renters. Thanks for the reply. Good to know it just is what it is.

[nightlysparrow]

Turn off the heat at night, use an electric blanket. Way cheaper.

[lvmensch]

Does not compute. You would see building bills from October on...not a sudden jump from 50 to 400.

Where are you...do you have intense cold weather? If you are in LA the bill is absurd.

Do a little meter work. Right down the readings and take them at night and in the morning. See if you are showing continuous usage or time varying. If continuous you have something wrong...a leak or something.

Google how to read a gas meter if you need to.

It could be natural but it would surprise me if it were.

[jm1982]

That's pretty nuts I don't think i've had a SoCal Gas bill over $100.
Some have been as low as $16

[Texamichiforniasota]

Originally Posted by Mrichardson21

We live in a 1500 sq ft house (older with some updates) and our normal gas bill is less than $50/month. For Dec 2016 it was close to $400 & Jan 2017 is close to $500! Is this normal? We keep our heat on auto at 69 degrees at night. Any advice on how to bring it down or what the issue could be??

No smells of gas? A leak could do it. Water heater settings are the other thing to think about, I read somewhere that almost half of gas use can be the water heater if you have an inefficient one that is set too high.

[JustMike77]

I had a situation like this with my electric bill once. A sudden jump about 5 times normal. It turns out that they don't necessarily read your meter every month, they often just bill according to the past history. When they finally do come and read the meter, they make an adjustment on one bill. Let's see what the January bill says.

[49erfan916]

It's been happening all over nor cal. We've been getting bills for 800 plus

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Mrichardson21

We live in a 1500 sq ft house (older with some updates) and our normal gas bill is less than $50/month. For Dec 2016 it was close to $400 & Jan 2017 is close to $500! Is this normal? We keep our heat on auto at 69 degrees at night. Any advice on how to bring it down or what the issue could be??

absolutely not normal if you are accustom to $50 or so. It hasn't been that cold. I would call the gas company asap. Keep us posted. What Mike said is a possibility. Even keeping your heat at 69 would not account for that much of a jump.