Expect Higher Natural Gas Bills Starting This Summer
Posted May 14, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The cost of natural gas is expected to shoot up by hundreds of dollars a year, putting the heat on homeowners.
If you’re an Enbridge Gas customer you may be paying about $300 a year more for the service starting July 1 – that’s a 20 per cent hike in your total gas bill.
The average household shells out about $1,400 dollars a year to keep their home and water warm. The expected 20 per cent increase means customers will be forking over an additional $280 this year.
Union Gas reportedly plans to raise its rates at the same time due to increases in market prices since the start of the year.
Because the companies provide credits to customers when their costs go down the Ontario Energy Board often has no problem approving requests by the utilities to change their rates.
The increase may be bad for your pocketbook but a bonus for Mother Nature as it may prompt many customers to closely watch their hot water consumption and install electronic thermostats.
One industry watchdog says conservation is the best way to beat the high prices.
“My main piece of advice is conserve as much as possible, because it’s really not a situation of buying well right now. It’s conserving energy. So that’s back to the old boring stuff of insulation and weather stripping and programmable thermostats and things like that,” Ian MacLellan of energyshop.com explained.
Enbridge serves 1.8 million customers in the GTA, the Niagara region and Ottawa and Union Gas serves 1.3 customers west of Toronto to Windsor and in eastern Ontario.
For more tips on how to keep your natural gas bill down, click here.
