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Master_Dogs t1_j5zehkt wrote

It's even harder to compare than gasoline prices though. Everyone might have a different supplier of gas, or even a different source of fuel. The OP's bill is for natural gas from National Grid from the looks of it, but other folks may have Eversource as their supplier. Some people might not even use natural gas and may get oil heat, and some might not even use gas at all so they'll chime in with their crazy high electric bills but that's even more insane to compare since every town gets a different rate agreement with the power company.

And then to go a step further with your pickup truck vs compact car example, some people may drive vastly differently than others! I may drive my pickup truck at exactly 55mph on the highway, while you're off going 90mph and rolling coal at every stop light in town. My gas tank will go a lot further than yours. Just like my heating bill will be cheaper than yours if I set my heat to 60° F and you set yours to 70° F.

And in addition to all of this, we all have vastly different insulation in our housing units. So even if I have the same pickup truck as you do, my engine might be really poorly maintained and so I'll blow through diesel fuel while you're running on eco mode with a fresh oil change and tires rotated last week.

I've tried to compare heating bills to others and it just brews confusion and frustration. The only comparison worth looking at is year over year changes. Make sure you're using the least energy you can to keep the house as comfortable as you can afford. If it's widely different from year to year maybe call your landlord and ask them to service your heating system, or suck it up, or try to move to a move efficient house/apartment. Really little you can do besides turning your thermostat down as far as you can bare. Easier said than done though.

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