Giant Natural Gas Bill

Mitch_4

28 day billing period, 90% eff equipment, 24 hrs/day you have about a 9 btu/sq ft loss...not bad I think. (31800000 (btu's / 4651 (sq ft incl basement) / 28 (bsmnt)/ 24 (hrs/day)= 10.17 x.9 (eff) = 9.16 btu/sq.ft / hr

Bill Degar

I have a Lennox Model #C33 60D 2F 1 forced air furance fueled by natural gas. My heating bill is outrageous. The size of my home is 3051 square feet with an unfinished basement equalling another 1600 square feet. The max design press is 450 psi and the coil is 60. I have no idea what this means. I moved from South Florida to Kansas and never had to deal with a heating system before. can anyone tell me if the system is the correct size and what I should expect to use monthly is gas. I am now using 31,800 cubic feet of gas per month. Any information anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Bill

Al Letellier_9

huge gas bills

The numbers you quoted sound like numbers off the A/C side of the unit and don't help much. You should have a service professional, who is well verse in gas, to inspect and adjust as needed that heating system.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

First, the "max design" and "coil" pressures you mention are almost certainly related to the air conditioning coil, not heating.

No way to say if your furnace is correctly sized with the info you provided.

31,800 cubic feet (318 therms) does sound high for a home of that size, but isn't there a cold snap in your area with high winds? Perhaps you're keeping the thermostat at "South Florida" levels...

If an older home with little thermal improvement I can only say that your gas consumption could be considered normal (given a cold snap and perhaps high t-stat setting).

If a newer (say mid 1970s or later) home AND your fuel consumption seems high in more "normal" conditions, I'd suggest calling in a heating pro to evaluate the system. Make CERTAIN that they examine the ductwork--not just recommend a furnace replacement!!!!!

jp_2

looks like

31,800 cu ft, approx 1,000 btu per cu ft.

comes out to around 14.5 btu's per sq ft not including the basement? sounds somewhat reasonable. not taking into account furnace efficiency either. ok if 90% efficiency and total sq footage that comes to 8.5 btu'd per sq ft.

Perry_3

Bill: Ahh.... welcome to winter

Bill:

318 thems of gas for a 3050 Sq Ft home actually sounds pretty good considering with the winter we are having.

Here's a comparison: 1700 Sq Ft house in Wisconsin routinely used 230 therm a month in recent past winters - that were a lot warmer than this one is.

In my case this winter I'm doing better because I spent $$,$$$ installing a much more efficient boiler than I had.

If I had not upgraded the boiler I suspect that my usage rate would be well over 300 therms (and perhaps approaching 400 therms) for the last 3 weeks (on a house half your size). I do know people in the area who do have heating bills like that.

I suspect that there may not be much that you can do. Winter heating bills are part of living in the colder climates.

Perry

Brad White

This isn't Florida anymore, Toto...

As the others have posted, the bills are not out of line. Naturally you can do things to tighten up the structure (air leakage is a big one), insulate and make your system the best it can be.

In the scheme of things, the numbes are in range of reasonable but anything can be made a little lower.