Cold temperatures causing high home heating costs

Watch the video above: Home heating bills on the rise because of falling temperatures. Carey Marsden reports. 

TORONTO – Toronto Hydro says the persistent cold weather of this winter season has caused a stark increase in calls about abnormally high bills as frigid temperatures are resulting in soaring prices.

“Last month alone we had 1700 calls from customers who were concerned about their high bills,” Tanya Bruckmueller-Wilson, a spokesperson for Toronto Hydro said in an interview. “We’ve seen a 150 per cent increase in terms of calls related to high bills compared to last year.”

The reason? The low temperatures cause furnaces and heaters to put in extra work to keep your apartment or house at a reasonable temperature.

“With it being so cold in the night-time, with the wind chills and everything, they don’t take into consideration that their furnaces are turning on a lot more often and they’re going through more fuel,” Jay MacDonald of Lambert Oil Limited said. “Your furnace is working a lot harder to maintain the same temperature that you are comfortable with.”

The increase differs based on how your home is heated. Bruckmueller-Wilson says people with gas furnaces will see, on average, a nine per cent increase in their heating costs.

Those people with electric heat could see increases ranging from 23 to 50 per cent, she said.

There are some things hydro customers can do to try and decrease their bill – namely, lower consumption.

“Lowering the temperature so you’re not using the heat as much and layering a little more,” Bruckmueller-Wilson said. “Heating and cooling are 50 per cent of the bill. You can see by shifting that behaviour you can change the amount you pay.”

This past winter has been the coldest in nearly a decade and March marks the fifth consecutive months with below normal temperatures across southern Ontario. The cold weather has also caused 77 per cent of the Great Lakes to freeze over.

– With files from Carey Marsden