Even if the Bay Area’s deep freeze begins to thaw this week, that will be too late to ease the dread that has gripped people like Wenzhong Xiao of San Jose.
Xiao so fears seeing how much higher his January heating bill will be compared to normal that he has taken drastic measures: He turns off the furnace in his home all night.
“It’s so cold,” Xiao said, reading the 49-degree temperature on the thermostat in his home one morning.
While heating bills always go up during winter, some residents are trying to limit their energy use to avoid month-to-month spikes. Still, when temperatures dropped below freezing the past five days, Bay Area residents used 50 percent more energy to heat their homes than they did for the same days last year, said Jeff Bennett, a gas strategist in the utility’s energy procurement organization.
That’s going to mean higher bills.
PG&E projects January gas bills will go up 10 percent over what it projected before the cold spell, to $112 for the average customer. The average gas bill in December was $75. Combined gas and electric bills will likely total an average of $199 for customers. Natural gas is the heating source for most Northern California residents.
“They’re going to see a bill that’s a lot higher than anything they’ve seen since the summer,” Bennett said. “There’s going to be that surprise.”
Xiao’s December utility bill came in at $200 – nearly four times higher than usual. And that was before the cold snap hit. Xiao admitted to wearing two pairs of pants and three jackets to keep warm in his 50-year-old house, turning on the heat for only a few hours at night when home from work.
Xiao, a Stanford University researcher who is home alone since his wife is away on business, said he doesn’t usually heat the house at night or when at work. He turns the thermostat up to 60 degrees when home but tries to stay away from home and takes refuge in the heat provided at work.
Not everyone has taken the same disciplined measures that Xiao has. Driven by colder temperatures, PG&E customers used 22 percent more gas on average for the first half of January compared with the two previous years, said PG&E’s Bennett.
The jump in gas prices could have been worse. Luckily, a lack of hurricane damage, plentiful supplies of natural gas and mild temperatures earlier this year kept gas prices down. The price of natural gas this month is $1.25 per “therm,” or British thermal unit, compared with $1.74 per therm last year in January. Prices are expected to bump up slightly as demand for gas increases.
If the weather cooperates, demand could fade.
The National Weather Service in Monterey said Tuesday that temperatures would gradually begin to warm up starting Thursday – with daytime high temperatures near 60 degrees. Overnight lows will finally be above freezing this morning.
Temperatures are expected to rise to a high of 62 degrees by Sunday.
The first bills reflecting the start of the latest round of icy weather should land in mailboxes this week, as meters were read Jan. 13. Others that pack the full impact of the cold snap will trickle in during the coming weeks.
For those who need help paying bills, there are assistance programs for low-income, disabled and elderly residents as well as payment programs for others, said PG&E spokesman Brian Swanson.
Swanson acknowledged it will be difficult to find customers who qualify for a special credit program PG&E is offering. The program gives customers credit if they didn’t use as much energy this January and February as they had during the previous three years. But he encouraged people to try, saying there was still plenty of time to make up for using too much energy earlier this month.
Along with the chill, stories about how people were keeping warm and attempting to manage heating costs lingered these past few days.
San Jose retiree Nick Lamberti and his wife have already turned off the thermostat in their split level 2,100-square-foot house at night, and they keep it set at 68 degrees in the evenings.
The Lambertis also bundled up in jackets at the dinner table and throw on extra blankets while watching television. Still, their bill was $209 for December – before the cold spell hit.
“I don’t know what else to do,” Lamberti said. He paid $190 in November.
At the Salvation Army’s family services department, which offers bill assistance to low-income, disabled and elderly residents, supervisor Laura Mejia said they’ve seen a 30 percent increase in requests for help with bills in the past month.
“The bills are extremely high,” Mejia said. “When they bring in their bills, they’re not just regular $100. We have bills that are coming in at $500 or $600 or maybe in the $1,000s.”
Contact Sarah Jane Tribble at stribble@mercurynews.com or (408)278-3499.
