WHAT CAN YOU DO TO KEEP SDG&E COSTS DOWN?

Home energy expert gives tips for sealing leaks and information about bill assistance programs

Right now there are two kinds of natural gas customers in San Diego: Those who are bracing for the much higher amount they’ll owe this month and those who are in for a surprise.

San Diego Gas & Electric’s rate for natural gas has doubled compared to last month, with the price per therm jumping from $2.55 in December to $5.11 in January. If your household gas bill came to about $105 last January, SDG&E now estimates this month’s bill will come to about $225. That’s an increase of 114 percent.

The new record high price is due to the rising cost of natural gas, which the utility has passed on to customers dollar for dollar.

Arn Lundquist, the owner and operator of San Diego-based Heron Inspection, shared energy saving-pointers to offset higher costs immediately.

Many of these are easier for homeowners than renters to tackle, but renters can make some of these changes (or ask their landlords to).

One is a thermostat that can be scheduled, instead of one that merely turns on and off based on the temperature. This is to avoid blasting heat when you don’t need it, like when you’re sleeping. The other is weatherstripping windows and doors.

(A new thermostat is not a big ask. Home Depot, for example, sells two programmable thermostats from Honeywell, now $30.)

These suggestions come from SDG&E:

• Clean your furnace’s air filters so the system works efficiently.

• Wash clothes in cold or warm water instead of hot.

• Lower your water heater’s thermostat to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Also, SDG&E offers home energy assessments as part of its Residential Energy Solutions (RES) Program. These are included with the cost of service for eligible customers, including people who rent or own a single-family home.

These fixes require a moderate up-front investment, Lundquist said: Get your furnace serviced and add some attic insulation.

San Diego homes, especially in older neighborhoods, don’t have adequate insulation, he said. “Heat rises,” Lundquist said. So when the heater is running, warm air “actually permeates the roof line and goes up into that attic space. And for not a whole lot of money, you can have a company come out and do blown-in insulation . ... That greatly improves the efficiency of your heating.” Lastly, Lundquist brought up two longterm upgrades: installing solar panels and replacing old windows.

However, even lower-income customers on the CARE program who use natural gas can expect to see their January gas bill go up, from $60 to $130.

For households with slightly higher incomes, the Family Electric Rate Assistance (FERA) program gives an 18 percent discount. A household of three must earn between $46,061 and $57,575.

SDG&E also runs a one-time bill payment fund, with up to $300 grants for people who don’t qualify for other programs.

The federal government’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) program “provides federally funded assistance to reduce the costs associated with home energy bills, energy crises, weatherization, and minor energy-related home repairs,” according to the program’s website. Here’s California’s portal: https://www.csd.ca.gov/ find-assistance.

Don’t avoid stovetop cooking. That doesn’t use much natural gas, Lundquist said. One cooking tweak he’d make: avoid long, slow oven roasts.

He also counsels against insulating window film, which is not a good investment in Southern California.

“The extreme cold temperatures that you get in the East Coast... every little tiny thing helps,” he said. But in San Diego, “during the day it’s 60 degrees. If you stand in front of a window and it’s 60 degrees outside and sunny, it feels like it’s 80 inside, you know?” A window film “is going to actually deter that thermal conduction.”

A last bit of advice for people worried about these higher costs and who may be thinking of giving up, giving in, and just accepting painfully high bills: don’t. “I wouldn’t say throw in the towel. That seems a little unreasonable, to look at life that way,” he said.