Energy Savings Corp. Fixed Natural Gas $$$

[Morozee]

I'm wondering what some of your thoughts are on the Fixed Price Program for Natural Gas. Energy Savings Corp. came to my door trying to sell me natural gas for the next 5 years at 43.9 cents per m3. Typically you pay a little more when you sign up for these things, but sometimes it's nice to have cost certainty when living on a fixed income. I however do not live on a fixed income and only care about the bottom line; in 5 years time will it be cheaper to buy all my natural gas at this rate? Anyone have any predictions or educated guesses on what the natural gas prices may do in the next 5 years? Any other thoughts or advice?<br>

[Cheese]

this has been posted before...

Heres a link to compare prices in your area...
Energyshop

Now...its not as simple as what price you are paying for Gas by m3. Right now I can find gas in my area at 38.9 m3 and last week it was 39.8. These companies also charge a Transportation fee...and thats where some really get you. The afforementioned company I talked about in my area capped theirs at 5.5 cents per m3....others dont tell you upfront or suggest that its a certain price...but forget to tell you its not a fixed rate for the full term. These companies are then free to up their transport rate to as high as 10 cents per m3 making your savings disappear in a hurry. My utitlity charges 42 per m3 and I think only 3.5 fixed for transportation.

The other thing to remember...if you lock in you WILL pay more for that service at the start...how long you pay that upper rate determines whether its a good deal or not. If its a five year deal and you pay a higher rate for 3 years you are prob going to lose in the end. If its a 5 year deal and you only pay a higher rate for a year you could be smiling. Its a gamble.
There are a few good deals out there...but I HIGHLY recommend that you phone these places and ask pertinent questions before locking yourself into any deal...gas or electricity. Try to get anything they offer IN WRITING!!!!
In the meantime....
Turn your heat down during the day and night...use your wood burning fireplace more often...LOL

Cheers

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Morozee

I'm wondering what some of your thoughts are on the Fixed Price Program for Natural Gas. Energy Savings Corp. came to my door trying to sell me natural gas for the next 5 years at 43.9 cents per m3.

The problem with asking that question here, is most of us have never paid for a m3 of gas. In Calgary we pay for gas by the gigajoule, so I would have no idea if that's a good rate or not.

Anybody know what the GJ to m3 conversion is?

[Draug]

Because a GJ is a measurement of energy, and m3 is a measurement of volume, the number of m3's in a GJ depends on the heat value of the gas. Gas is made up of many components, and each one of those contain different amounts of energy.

A rough average is about 40 GJ's in a e3m3 (1000 m3). So there is about 0.04 GJ's in one m3 of gas.

To get more specific, you'd need to know the heat value of the gas in question.

[Indi]

I ran up against the same thing in '01'....ended up signing a 5 yr term with Epcor for $5.69/GJ...took it on the chin for about 1.5 yrs.....since then gas has not dropped below $6.00......to top it off, I still get all the gas rebates.....last gas bill, the gas portion was $78.00, and the rebates totaled $68.00...so I only had to pay $10.00 for the gas, and another $65.00 for the services.......

When this one expires...I'm just going to ride the spot prices....the gas rebates really take the bite out of buying winter gas
jc

[V]

As far as gas goes, I'm not sure what's going to happen to the prices, but Cheese is totally right in that even if you get a good price for the gas itself, you could get killed on the riders if you aren't careful.

As for electricity, it's going to spike sometime in the next 5 years, and when it does, look out. Projections are for as much as spiking to triple the cost.

A very good indication of whether or not you're getting a good deal with a utility is this: If the utility is coming to you, trying to get you to sign something? It's not a good deal for you.

[V]

Is that for gas or electrical?? It goes to show what the company thinks is going to happen in the next couple of years.

[V]

Smart move, for sure.