Gas Bill Explosion?
A gas bill can do explosive damage to your wallet during a cold winter. In part two of our series on lowering your apartment’s utility bills, we’d like to give you some pointers on taming that gas bill.
It’s Winter – Do You Know Where Your Gas Bill Is?
In most apartment complexes, the apartments are heated by natural gas. Composed primarily of methane, natural gas is efficient and delivers quick, powerful heat. However, if you’re not keeping track of your gas bill, your natural gas usage can quickly get away from you.
Keep records of what your apartment’s gas bill has been over the past few months. If it spikes without an accompanying change in the weather or in your gas usage, you may have a problem – or even a dangerous natural gas leak. Talk to your apartment manager about the problem.
It’s also very handy to know what’s happening to your neighbors’ gas bills. If you see a significant change in your gas bill, find out what happened to your neighbor’s gas bills. If yours was the only one to jump, you know you have a problem.
Lower Your Apartment’s Gas Bill
Here are some quick gas bill lowering tips:
- Stay in tune with the seasons. When it’s cold out, don’t fight it with your thermostat. Wear a sweater and socks when you’re in the house, and keep the thermostat a few degrees cooler. Program or adjust your thermostat so your apartment’s gas bill isn’t skyrocketing because you’re heating an empty apartment.
- Spot heating is big savings. As we mentioned in our electric bill article, it really pays to use a space heater to stay toasty in your favorite locations, rather than heating the entire apartment.
- Hot water hits your gas bill. If your apartment’s shower spits scalding water, you’re also getting burned by your gas bill. Turn the hot water heater setting down until you don’t need to mix in cold water when you take a shower.
- Insulate. Even apartment renters can insulate with easily-removed weatherstripping. If you’re worried about getting dinged for damage caused by weatherstripping, simply stuff drafty window cracks with packing foam or bubble wrap.
- Hot water, redux. Some 80 to 85% of the energy you spend on washing clothes is spent on heating the water. Try washing your clothes only in cold water, and if that doesn’t work for you, try warm instead of hot. Make sure you’re using the right water level setting – less water means less waste!
- Watch your oven. If your apartment’s gas bill is being inflated by oven usage, try moving or sharing the load. Can those fries be browned in your smaller toaster oven? Are you using the oven for toast? How about baking potatoes and cooking a roast at the same time?
Gas Bill Relief
Try these tips and see if you get some gas bill relief. Sometimes, though, you may have to talk to apartment maintenance about the insulation or the heating in your unit.
If you’re trying to find an energy-efficient apartment for rent, don’t forget to use our apartment search services. You can earn up to $200 in renter rewards if you find an apartment with us!
