# Enbridge Gas bill estimated vs actual consumption



## Tostig (Nov 18, 2020)

Has anybody compared the estimated reading that Enbridge does to the actual reading on the gas meter?

When I received the statement this past July 2022, I was shocked that my usage was 3.5x higher than in June or 3.25x higher than July 2021. I thought deeply what changed in July that boosted my natural gas consumption but could not think of anything. We don't use natural gas heating in the summer time and we had recently changed our water tank to tankless which is supposed to save natural gas for only when you turn on your hot water faucet. There is no way our showers plus dishwasher are taking 3.5x longer than last year or last month.

At a party, someone explained that Enbridge's monthly estimates will sort itself out when someone does an actual reading each year.

So starting August I perform my own actual gas meter reading from the 16th to the 20th each month.

I just received my December bill. Enbridge's estimated consumption is currently 682 cu.m compared to my actual consumption of 85 cu.m.

Starting meter :73970

Actual Reading Enbridge estimate reading
August 19: 73993 74005
September 20: 74014 74014
October 19: 74027 74127 (note the additional 100cu m)
November 17: 74038 74307 (note another 200cu m totalling almost 300cu m)
December 16: 74057 74652

Total from start to December: 87cu. m actual usage, 682 cu.m Enbridge estimated usage

I certainly hope that sometime in the next six months, Enbridge will perform an actual reading and remove that extra 595 cu. m or more. If they don't, I have pictures with dates all ready to send to them.









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## Synergy (Mar 18, 2013)

I had a similar issue with Hydro One. My estimates where way off so I kept submitting readings every months. It took 1.5-2 years for the algorithm to sort iself out. Now it's pretty good, not perfect by any means but Hydro manually reads the meter every 3-4 months. I got tired of reading the meter so now I just except their rough estimates. Not to worry, they will adjust your bill on the next actual reading.

For some reason Enbridge reads my commercial building / business monthly. Gotta luv Enbridge's fixed fee for businesses. I pay close to $75 per month in the summer when the gas is turned off. My residential neighbour pays very little and gets the same service. Same goes for internet, etc. Service is not any faster for their business customers.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

I would send in the data to Enbridge to change their algorithm for your service point. That all said, unless something has radically changed in the usage at your service point in the last year or two, their algorithm should have already adjusted based on historical data. I find it hard to believe actual meter readings are only done once per yea in your service area. Our Fortis gas readings are taken each month.


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## Eclectic21 (Jun 25, 2021)

Tostig said:


> ... At a party, someone explained that Enbridge's monthly estimates will sort itself out when someone does an actual reading each year.


Are they commercial instead of residential for the reading to be annual?
Or is this person confused?

My Enbridge bills in the meter reading section document which it was for that month. For as long as I can check bills for, it alternates between an estimated month and a read month. For example, if Jan is estimated then Feb is read and Mar is another estimated month.




Tostig said:


> ... So starting August I perform my own actual gas meter reading from the 16th to the 20th each month.


Since about August, I read the meter before the 8th of the month and enter it through my account on Enbridge's web site. It has been much smoother since then.

There is an option through the website to setup an email reminder of the deadline for entering the meter reading.



Cheers


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## Eclectic21 (Jun 25, 2021)

Synergy said:


> ... Gotta luv Enbridge's fixed fee for businesses. I pay close to $75 per month in the summer when the gas is turned off. My residential neighbour pays very little and gets the same service ...


I can't say for Enbridge as the hot water tank means there are always gas use charges.

However, back in the '90's when the hot water tank was electric and the furnace was gas, there used to be a minimum charge in the summer for twenty five dollars a month.

Before putting in gas and a gas furnace when the heat was electric, months like Feb were two hundred and seventy dollars or so.


Cheers


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## Synergy (Mar 18, 2013)

^ Correct, residential customers fixed fee is around $20-25 these days. That's with the gas line turned off. I just get a kick out of the price difference for residential vs business. The Bell tech completely agreed with me. He services both residential and business clients. There was no priority for business customers in my neck of the woods...


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## Synergy (Mar 18, 2013)

In order to fix the algorithm I believe it's going to take multiple actual readings over a percid of time My suggestion would be to call in the meter reading monthly for an entire year.


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## Eclectic21 (Jun 25, 2021)

Synergy said:


> ^ Correct, residential customers fixed fee is around $20-25 these days. That's with the gas line turned off ...


I did not turn the gas off at all to get to the twenty five dollar fee. Interesting that it is so similar but that might have been that Union Gas was cheaper in those days. Enbridge seemed to be more expensive, across the board.


Cheers


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## Synergy (Mar 18, 2013)

Eclectic21 said:


> I did not turn the gas off at all to get to the twenty five dollar fee. Interesting that it is so similar but that might have been that Union Gas was cheaper in those days. Enbridge seemed to be more expensive, across the board.
> 
> Cheers


Here's an old Q&A in regards to the customer charge









I don't understand the customer charge of $20 each month on my Enbridge Gas bill. For what?


I don't understand the customer charge of $20 each month on my Enbridge Gas bill. For what?



www.enbridge.com





There is a section on their website you can enter your postal code to get the actual fee. It appears to vary by region.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Haven't looked at the numbers in post #1 or difference between estimates and actual other than knowing that ENB loves to do "estimates" perpetually on "commercial" buildings since they can collect those extra dollars (by the hundreds! which adds up to the thousands!!) BEFORE they need to adjust your numbers. I'm not so much concerned about residential since the dollar amounts would be far far less than that - like less than a $100 for residentials.

Anyhow, check your gas rates as I just did a compare for same period (eg. October to November) for the past 10 years despite my usage was down for same said period. To my shock, the rate is now 3 times more, hence the bill came out to 3 times more despite I used less!

And yes, if you don't use an ounce of gas, there's a minimum charge on your bill per month. This is so to keep the gas line/supply open for ya and pay its shareholders the divvies. Executives get their annual YE bonus via other means such as for example above.  Hey, somebod(ies) gotta pay they say.


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## Eclectic21 (Jun 25, 2021)

^^^

For gas rates, Dec to Dec is a bit over 100% increase (13.2 versus current 27.9).


Cheers


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## Eclectic21 (Jun 25, 2021)

Synergy said:


> ... There is a section on their website you can enter your postal code to get the actual fee. It appears to vary by region.


I will have to search for that section to find out what it is in my area. 

The water tank charges mean I have never seen what the minimum charge for using no gas is with Enbridge.
Union Gas OTOH, was several months in the year.

Cheers


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

Eclectic21 said:


> For gas rates, Dec to Dec is a bit over 100% increase (13.2 versus current 27.9).


On April 2023 federal carbon tax on gas will be ($0.1239 per cubic metre), so that's another 44% tax on top of the gas use.

ltr


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## Synergy (Mar 18, 2013)

Eclectic21 said:


> I will have to search for that section to find out what it is in my area.
> 
> The water tank charges mean I have never seen what the minimum charge for using no gas is with Enbridge.
> Union Gas OTOH, was several months in the year.
> ...


Here's the link for residential customers. Enjoy!



Residential Natural Gas Rates | Enbridge Gas


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

^ Thanks for that info.

As a Torontonian with Rate 1, I would be more than happy to swap with anyone under any of the other Rates M1, 01 Union North West/East.

Overall annual "increase" impact for Transportation (ENB's) is $49.35 or $21.15 (your Contractor's) under Rate1 (Toronto, Ottawa, Niagara region) versus an overall annual "increase" impact of $.86 or $2.30 or $5.76 (for districts with rate M1, 01 NorthWest/East ) ... LOL.


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## Tostig (Nov 18, 2020)

I spoke with Enbridge. They are cancelling my Jan 9th payment and will do an actual reading. Starting February, I will be getting an email notification to submit actual readings.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

Tostig said:


> Starting February, I will be getting an email notification to submit actual readings.


That's the best way to get correct billing. My estimates are usually pretty good and they only read my meter maybe once a year but I do submit actual readings every 4-6 months.


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## Covariance (Oct 20, 2020)

deleted.


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