Around $400 for a 2000 square foot 1970s house kept at around 68 during the day.

Does running the gas fireplace affect a bill a lot? Could that be part of it?

My house is about 5500 SF including the basement and keep the thermostat set at 72 day and night. I have a gas furnace in the basement and a heat pump in the attic. Our peak winter bills are usually around $500 for electric and $350 for gas.

The highest gas bill we ever had with our old furnace (20+ years old) in our 2800 sq ft townhouse built in 1990 was $200. That was in February 2022 and I think gas prices were quite high then. Your costs per sq ft look about 40% higher than that. You could consider an energy audit to see how leaky your house is. We have since replaced our HVAC system which made our house more comfortable, but the biggest actual savings we've seen is from replacing our attic insulation.

Yup. Look at your roof? Doesn't have snow on it (the non dummy spots) or is it all melted? If it melts fast, it's from heat escaping.

Anonymous wrote:The two story living room has large windows I'm assuming. That's just you heating a bunch of space and heat evaporating upwards. We also plastic tape our old windows and it makes a huge difference.

+1 We have a few places we will look into do doing temporary remediation (even if ugly) and then long term remediation.
We have a room that is a converted portch with those crank windows and even though it's all relatively new it doesn't seem to be very sealed. Not as much as it could be.

Also if your house has icicles it means heat is leaking out the roofline.

Anonymous wrote:The two story living room has large windows I'm assuming. That's just you heating a bunch of space and heat evaporating upwards. We also plastic tape our old windows and it makes a huge difference.

+1. Worth looking into.

The two story living room has large windows I'm assuming. That's just you heating a bunch of space and heat evaporating upwards. We also plastic tape our old windows and it makes a huge difference.

Oh also, 72?? During the day it should be 68 and then turn it down to 64 at night. Put on some layers, get warmer bedding.

Wow. We are at 2500 sw ft and one furnace. Keep it at 70 when home and 67 at night or lower. Our bill is under $200 per month. This is also a really really cold winter.

Anonymous wrote:We moved to a bigger home last spring, and this is our first winter in this house. The house is 30 years old and about 6700 sq ft when you factor in the walk in basement and has a two story living room. There are 2 furnaces that are about 15 years old (we knew going in that we have to change them in the next few years).
I was shocked to see that our gas bill came to about $700 last month! We usually keep the temperature to around 72 when we are home during the day, and about 68-70 at night.
Is this normal for a house this size? or do we have inefficient windows? or are the furnaces too old and not energy efficient?

see bold. not sure why you are surprised.

Anonymous wrote:Well it was $300 for our 2900sq feet house so that sounds about right for yours.

I'll add ours is old and poorly insulated too...

Well it was $300 for our 2900sq feet house so that sounds about right for yours.

WTF! Check for leaks!

We have a 4k sqft home and it was $175!

We moved to a bigger home last spring, and this is our first winter in this house. The house is 30 years old and about 6700 sq ft when you factor in the walk in basement and has a two story living room. There are 2 furnaces that are about 15 years old (we knew going in that we have to change them in the next few years).
I was shocked to see that our gas bill came to about $700 last month! We usually keep the temperature to around 72 when we are home during the day, and about 68-70 at night.
Is this normal for a house this size? or do we have inefficient windows? or are the furnaces too old and not energy efficient?