Neighborhood News
Propane Bills/Usage Forest Ridge 2008/09
Posted on Mar 18th, 2009
There have been some concerns recently with high propane bills. I have
discussed this with Irving, our supplier, and I will try to summarize the
information here. (For those wanting further detailed information on their
accounts please call Irving, their contact center number is 888-310-1924 and they are more than willing to help review individual accounts).
The short answer is that all the units within Forest Ridge have individual
meters, except individual homes and the sports club, therefore it is
unlikely that the billing is wrong unless a meter was read wrong or not
working correctly. With several units raising the same issue at the same
time a meter issue is unlikely.
There are three main contributors to the higher bill.. 1. Increased cost of
propane, 2. A longer billing cycle, and 3. A colder winter.
1. Our contract price for propane for this year is $2.252/gallon where
as, last year it was $1.639/gallon which is a 37% increase over last year.
As reference, the current propane rates at Irving as of 3/7 are $2.65/gallon
for residential and $2.45 for small commercial.
2. The bill received in February was for a period of either 44 or 48
days depending on when the meter was read. The date on the left side of the bill is the date when the meter was read for this bill, the "Read:" date on
the right side of the bill is the previous read date the difference between
the dates is the billing period.
3. This winter was colder in January, as measured in Degree Days than
last year. An explanation of Degree Days can be found here:
While Degree Day is a very good method it is not perfect so some
variation in results can be expected.
I have also attached a spreadsheet of a couple units (townhouses) that
Irving researched as well as the data for my Forest Circle unit (upper floor
inside) that I\'ve added for comparison.
I hope this helps understand where the costs are coming from, unfortunately it doesn\'t do anything to reduce the size of the bill.
Please let me know if I can do anything else to help.
Sincerely,
Dave Larsen