Cold January sends heating bills higher

TOLEDO (AP) — Residential heating bills jumped last month after one of the coldest Januarys on record — and in spite of lower natural gas prices. Some homeowners say they’re seeing gas bills that range from 20 percent to double what they paid a year ago.

The average temperature in the Toledo area last month was 16.5 degrees — 7.4 degrees colder than usual, the National Weather Service in Cleveland said. The mercury topped freezing on just six days.

Many utilities recently lowered their fuel rates, but numerous customers continue to face large bills because they’re locked into natural gas supply contracts that carry higher rates.

“We knew it would be higher, but we didn’t think it would be that much higher,” said Phyllis Clymer, a retired clerical worker who lives in a 100-year-old house in Lyons near the Michigan border.

The most recent monthly tab for Clymer and her husband was $407, or 38 percent more than a year ago. But it would have been much higher if the couple hadn’t closed off the home’s upstairs.

“It was a real shocker. Unbelievable,” Robert Gstalder, a retired marketing executive, said of the $436 monthly bill he recently received for his Toledo home. “This apparently was one of the coldest spells we’ve seen in quite a few years, but I don’t understand how it could have made that much of a difference.”

Rosalind “Rocky” Marlette and her husband got a bill for $246, which was 46 percent higher than at the same time last year.

“I about freaked out when I saw that,” the Lyons resident said.

Numerous customers — many of them retired — say they’ve cut back on restaurant meals, suspended their television service or started looking harder for grocery bargains. But that might not be enough for people on fixed incomes.

“We don’t wear fancy clothes,” Marlette said. “We don’t go to restaurants. I don’t have diamonds.”

The colder weather has been the biggest factor in residential gas use this winter, said Bob Eyre, vice president of gas supply at Ohio Gas, which supplies 47,000 customers in northwest Ohio. Last year’s January was a lot warmer, with about 25 percent warmer temperatures compared to January 2009, he said.

Columbia Gas spokesman Chris Kozak said people having trouble paying unusually large bills should contact the utility to see whether they can spread payments over several months.