The Observation Deck

Here's the latest, as modified yesterday.

Apples to Apples Gas Rates As of Today

I'm no expert, but I've stayed on top of this stuff and have fared pretty well. My three-year agreement ends in December so I locked in a one-year contract about a month ago.

IMO the best bet on this chart is the MXEnergy floating rate at $7.45. For the cost of a 10-minute phone call you can save about 8% against what you would pay Dominion, if you don't already have a better deal. MXEnergy is and has been my supplier and I have no bad experiences with them. This rate has been on-again-off-again based on what MXEnergy has been able to do in the futures market I am guessing, so it may not last.

Plus there are a couple one-year plans, at $9.49 and $9.99 that may be good deals depending on what happens to natural gas prices in the next couple months. But a lot of folks are calling for a warmer winter and saying there is a lot of natural gas stockpiled right now, so like I said the MXEnergy floating rate deal looks like a good bet, and will be cheaper than Dominion no matter what (I think).

FWIW. Make one phone call and save a couple hundred bucks this winter. Have your latest gas bill in front of you when you make the call, you'll need it.

Thanks Tim. I'm part of the Nopec deal for Natural Gas. I think there is now $9.99 through March.

Thank you Tim! I do every thing to cut down on my energy cost but look at my gas rate ... Thanks for the info!!!!!!!!!

When comparing against my Dominion bill, I should use the Total Rate per MCF column, right? The Current Offer would compare to the SSO gas cost?

Brian I just used the Total Rate column. MXEnergy = $10.31, and when you read the Dominion paragraph at the top you see Dominion = $11.12. It's closer to 7% savings actually. I'm presuming that's the best way to compare "apples to apples" as the PUCO site tries to help us do.

Over a year of gas bills that's gonna amount to a couple hundred dollars saved for the many of us with typical Lakewood homes. It's well worth the 15 minutes or so it will take.

If anyone has better information please post. Like I said I'm not pretending to be an expert, just someone who receives e-mail notification when rates change, which I got yesterday.

That MXEnergy $7.45 rate was there three weeks ago then disappeared. Now it's back. It is a variable rate so it can go up but presumably so will Dominion. I probably would not have brought it up but I have been with MXEnergy for three years and they've been fine. But hey it's everyone's own call....

Oh and Stephen if you're looking for another way to save money, consider your term life insurance premiums. They get lower and lower all the time, if you haven't shopped it lately I'd bet there's quite a bit of savings to be had. There was for me, literally $1000's (at my age and over 10 years).

The Plain Dealer had an article about natural gas suppliers in yesterday's paper. The bulk of the article showed a couple sample gas bills, and how to interpret them. That stuff is available online, here....

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2007 ... ASBILL.pdf (1.4Mb pdf file)

One interesting note – the article said that Dominion East Ohio does not want to be in the business of selling natural gas. They just want to be in the delivery business. So their bills actually encourage you to check out alternative suppliers.

Again, I may be wrong, but I'll bet I'm right. If you are still buying gas from Dominion East Ohio, you will save perhaps $200 over the next year by switching to the MXEnergy variable rate plan. Fifteen minutes, one phone call....

Finally, here's what has happened to the price of natural gas in the last five days. Oh, and did you know that retail investors can easily invest in natural gas? Ticker symbol UNG. There are a lot of commodities you can buy just like stocks these days (by way of Exchange Traded Funds). Food, energy, water, currencies, etc....

The five-day natural gas price trend. It's up another 2% just this morning, almost 8% since I started this thread on Friday morning....



I'll bet you by the end of this week the MXEnergy variable rate offer is gone....

Hopefully the worst of the heating season is behind us. I’ve spent the winter months attempting to gain a better understanding of the various gas rates and programs. I’ve compiled everything into a massive spreadsheet to compare various programs and found a few things:

The biggest thing I found is that buying direct from the Dominion “Non-Choiceâ€￾ program appears to be offering the best deals for the last few years.

Comparing buying direct from Dominion to one of the “Choiceâ€￾ programs is a fairly confusing proposition. The PUCO lists the Dominion “Non-Choiceâ€￾ rate with transportation costs, a rider charge, and a gross receipts tax included (it shows up this way on the gas bill too). The “Choiceâ€￾ program breaks out transportation charges and the Cuyahoga County sales tax separately (as it does on the bill). A cursory look at the bill, the PUCO web site, or mailers from “Choiceâ€￾ gas suppliers would make it appear that rates from the “Choiceâ€￾ suppliers would save customers $3.00 or more per MCF (and this is clearly not the case). Attempting to reconcile the two is no simple task. I’ve gone through and calculated the rates from Dominion for the last few months as a rate that can be compared directly to the choice program advertised rates:

October: $7.644/Mcf
November: $8.466/Mcf
December: $8.401/Mcf
January: $8.401/Mcf
February: $9.172/Mcf

The taxes on buying gas from Dominion directly work out to be approximately 4.96% while the Cuyahoga County sales tax is currently at 7.75%. The transportation charge appears to now be the same for both the “Choiceâ€￾ and “Non-Choiceâ€￾ customers (although in the past the “Choiceâ€￾ customers paid more for transportation).

Buying from one of the “Choiceâ€￾ variable rate programs over the last few years would look to be the most expensive way to get gas. Prices for the variable rate plans are often pretty low in the summer when many people shop for gas, but this is also a time when we don’t heat the house. The rates tend to go nuts during the winter time, and since it takes several months to switch gas suppliers, the consumer ends up being the loser. I got suckered on this one pretty good last year.

If you are lucky enough to find a fix rate program that offers a rate lower than buying from Dominion directly, more power to you. It looks possible, but playing the lottery probably has better odds.

If anyone wants a copy of my overly complicated spreadsheet that includes tables and graphs that compare the various programs in various ways, please let me know. I’d be happy to share.

I am on some kind of gas budget from Dominion. Not sure how we got it hooked up as my wife handles the finances. (she does a wonderful job by the way) I pay a fixed price every month out of the year. That allows me to pay for more gas than I use in the summer and build up a balance so in the winter I can apply that balance toward the current bill and still break even. Not sure if that helps but thought I would throw it in.