patrick.net

Rockefellers get their pound of fuel flesh from their political puppets. Blow up Nordstream Pipeline, check, have Biden Actor Puppet cancel pipeline to cheap Canadian gas, check, double domestic gas prices, check.

Eric Holder says

Shaman says

My December bill doubled since last year, and we used 20 less therms than this time last year.

The price gouging is real.
$245 to $442

$442 for natgas only?

Yeah, that seems steep. We had a really cold December and $225 was my gas bill in IL. That makes zero sense if you're out in CA. You'd have to have a 4k sq. ft. house or have 6 kids. January was $181 here. You CA boys might be getting raped.

It’s the commodity cost that went sky high. Average for December to January was $3.25/therm gas commodity alone. That is subject to market forces, and the market went stupid this year.

Yea my bill for natural gas only was $442. I have three kids, we keep the house at 72° and it’s a California house with no insulation between the drywall and the stucco. The house is two story, right at 2000 sqf, with five bedrooms. Everyone takes showers, my teens might take overly long ones ugh. We use the oven-range almost every day. And our dryer is gas as well. So is the hot tub, but we didn’t run that. Up until this year, gas was a deal for all that energy use. Now the rates have at least doubled, and of course they add lots of taxes to the bill.

I suspect that this is associated with the Democrat push to “ban gas stoves.” They know they can’t just ban them, nobody would comply! So they have chosen to have the public utilities enter into ruinous contracts with suppliers at ridiculous rates and then pass those rates on to the consumers.

This is designed to make gas more expensive than electric, pushing people towards upgrading their appliances to electric.

It’s working. the oven is the last appliance we have to get upgraded. It’s a 1993 GE unit and it works fairly well for its age. Maybe we get an electric replacement? Idk. I feel like I could be chasing a mirage here.

Yes, I also think recent utility bill hikes are a horribly misguided attack on relatively clean and abundant natural gas.

At some point it will be worth it to physically ship propane tanks from places with lower prices. Maybe it is already.

ForcedTQ says

It’s the commodity cost that went sky high. Average for December to January was $3.25/therm gas commodity alone. That is subject to market forces, and the market went stupid this year.

Why $442 though in CA? That's insane unless it's a large house. We had -1ºF HIGHS for days in December. $225 for December. Less for January. Three boys, showers/hot water. We heat the house at 67ºF and drop it to 60ºF 12am-4am. would be the biggest difference. For IL we get good passive solar heating from the south. That just seems insane from a cold weather perspective.

Add on. Does it get lower than 55ºF during the day? There's no need to turn on the heat. Wear layers and blankets. With sunlight, windows closed I can't imagine the inside of a home getting less than 55ºF. Definitely don't have to worry about pipes freezing. I don't think I'd use gas or electric heat out in CA unless in the mountains.

@WookieMan Lately it's been quite cold in the SF Bay Area. Could really use some of that "global warming".

By cold, I mean that overnight it can dip below freezing, and sometimes the high is only 50 F outside. Typical high lately is about 60 F. (Dunno how you type the degree symbol.)

We leave the heat off at night and usually turn it on only in the morning and in the evening. In the middle of the day it's about 60 inside the house lately.

Shaman says

California house with no insulation between the drywall and the stucco

We have the same problem. The house is essentially a tent made of wood.

I guess one problem with renting is that we're not too motivated to pay to insulate it very well. Not till recently anyway.

WookieMan says

You CA boys might be getting raped.

Small 3 bedroom two bath 1200sqft with little insulation. Our January total bill was $280.29.
Horribly cold this year. It has got down to the low 30's several times already

$485 last month with $171 in gas.
$685 this month with $330 in gas. This is record for us compared to all previous years.

You guys are talking 30ºF lows though.... I'm talking -1ºF for a HIGH for 3-4 days. Then 20-30ºF for HIGHS the rest of the month. You are being raped by the gas company. It's not even a conversation. I'm not trying to argue, just pointing out you're getting fucked royally.

My furnace during these times runs 20 hours a day. 5 humans taking showers, laundry, dishes, all powered by gas essentially. Never have I reached $250/mo and we sure as shit get waaaaaay colder than CA outside of mountains.

Fuel rape in California has always been a thing. When Enron was manipulating the market, they had traders who celebrated how much they were sticking it to California because they hated it so much. They had recordings of their phone exchanges.

That's true. This shit has happened before, with Enron fucking California.

Same corruption, same fucking the public for private profit.

I remember bills like this from that time, about 1998 I think.

I only noticed because I had the highest natural gas usage in the past 12 months this bill. Made sense once my wife told me the water heater had a pretty good leak.

I noticed that the "Tier 1" cost was $2.34/therm in December but $2.67/therm in January. There are also a small amount of add-on fees. I don't know what Tier 2 cost is, because I didn't hit it. That puts California well behind Hawaii (no pipelines) but more costly than any other state in the union, I think.

The bigger problem for my shack is no insulation in the walls and very little insulation in the attic. I permanently closed off my fireplace chimney years ago because the flue vent let quite a cold draft through. Seasonally, I block off my whole house fan. 1555 square foot house, but as a single story it's quite a lot of surface area. Of course the floor isn't insulated – not even carpeted.

65 degree temperature setting for 7:30 AM until 10:00 PM and 57 degrees otherwise. Gas bill is about $120/month in the winter and less than $10/month in the summer (hot water heater only).

According to PG&E December 2021 averaged 52 degrees but December 2022 was 48 degrees. I used 10% more gas this past December and it also cost 20% more per unit.

Tier 2 rate went up 9% (3.06/2.80)
Tier 1 rate went up 14% (2.67/2.34)
My Dec, Jan gas usage went up 40% more compare to last year months and the bill went up to $200!
Thanks for Biden inflation.

So far no proof 400% increase. Not even doubling. Seems to follow general inflation trend and weather pattern.

WookieMan says

Why $442 though in CA?

My father had a building supply company when I was a kid.

Houses in California are built like shit. No insulation, single pained windows, they don't give a damned if it's air tight.

A million dollar house here is a shithole compared to a $100,000 house where I grew up.

Patrick says

By cold, I mean that overnight it can dip below freezing, and sometimes the high is only 50 F outside. Typical high lately is about 60 F. (Dunno how you type the degree symbol.)

Option 0 (zero) on my computer. Option key is "key" for weird shit. √ Ω ø ƒ ∆ I'm losing my half assed tech capabilities as I don't mess around with any of it anymore. But option anything comes up with some symbol. I think most OS's allow to customize it as well if you use a symbol frequently.

richwicks says

Houses in California are built like shit. No insulation, single pained windows, they don't give a damned if it's air tight.

That still seems high for the air temp is all. I've stayed in a hipster Palm Spring hotel in the past. It was just plywood and the studs. No insulation. Was January so it got down to 30ºf at night. I was coming from a cold climate, so that temp didn't move me. Cannot remember how often the split duct system kicked in, but was never cold and was generally naked in the room (I know TMI) with it just being the wife and I.

I got my best haircut ever on that trip. Hair Cuttery. The hispanic woman nailed what my hair should look like (at the time). Haven't been able to repeat it. Pisses me off. I like Palm Springs but it is gay as can be. Pisses me off because I like the MCM architecture and the golf. I don't need to see obvious gays and hidden gay bars everywhere.

WookieMan says

Option 0 (zero) on my computer.

Yup, that's it: º

Wow, pretty much every letter prints some symbol when you hold option down on a Mac:

å∫ç∂´ƒ©˙ˆ∆˚¬µ˜øπœ®ß†¨√∑≈¥Ωº¡™£¢∞§¶•ªº

I am using a Windows 11 computer, so I guess I have to write 98.6 degrees instead of 98.6°

HeadSet says

I am using a Windows 11 computer, so I guess I have to write 98.6 degrees instead of 98.6°

I did that forever until I kept seeing users here use it. I'm like how the fuck are they doing that. There has to be a way in Windows which I believe you're proving unless that was a copy and paste. On a mac most numbers and letter are pretty logical for the symbol. Like CTRL 4 is ¢ but it's dollar sign with shift. It's why I can't stand phones. Using a keyboard is exponentially better. Memorized shortcuts make life/work on a computer so much easier.

Just upgraded my keyboard. I can link it to my phone and type texts there if I want with a push of a button. iMessage on the mac only works with people that have Apple ID, at least for me. As witnessed here I can ramble/type on forever. I don't like the touch screen typing at all. As a taller person I have large fingers, so touch screen typing is not compatible with my physical reality. Only concern is fucking up typing a response to something and it was meant for here, or somewhere else and not the text and I forgot to switch over. Knock on wood have not made the mistake yet.

WookieMan says

Add on. Does it get lower than 55ºF during the day? There's no need to turn on the heat. Wear layers and blankets. With sunlight, windows closed I can't imagine the inside of a home getting less than 55ºF. Definitely don't have to worry about pipes freezing. I don't think I'd use gas or electric heat out in CA unless in the mountains.

Most people out here are crybabies that will bitch and moan if the interior of their house or workplace is less than 67 degrees. It’s laughable to suggest that they would be ok layered up down to 55 without mechanical heat.

WookieMan says

That still seems high for the air temp is all. I've stayed in a hipster Palm Spring hotel in the past. It was just plywood and the studs. No insulation. Was January so it got down to 30ºf at night. I was coming from a cold climate, so that temp didn't move me. Cannot remember how often the split duct system kicked in, but was never cold and was generally naked in the room (I know TMI) with it just being the wife and I.

There's my family cabin in Northern NY that has been in the family since I've existed. I stayed there this November. It's just studs, no insulation, although you CAN survive in it with a heater on, all the time, it's not easy to heat. Fine in summer, but would be unlivable in winter. Perhaps if we pulled out a bunch of bubble wrap, and started filling in all the gaps, it could be possible.

WookieMan says

I got my best haircut ever on that trip. Hair Cuttery. The hispanic woman nailed what my hair should look like (at the time). Haven't been able to repeat it. Pisses me off.

Got a photograph of yourself with that haircut? A simple trick is that when you get a haircut you like, take a clear photograph of yourself, and then you don't have to explain to the hairdresser what you want. You just say "this is me, so, that haircut".