The first thing you need to know about recent energy-market gyrations and winter heating costs is to say "no thanks" to BGE Home's fixed-price natural gas offer of $1.599 per therm.
You wouldn't pay $5 a gallon for gasoline. Don't pay $1.599 a therm for natural gas. Energy of all kinds has gotten much cheaper in the past two months. Prices have a good shot at falling further.
Whether you heat with gas, oil or electricity, make sure any purchases from independent marketers reflect the price declines since the beginning of July.
Oil retailers and people selling kilowatts and gas to compete with Baltimore Gas & Electric's standard product like to say they "protect you from fluctuating energy costs." But too often they "protect" you from falling energy prices.
Cheaper energy is the silver lining in this year's economic storm. The world economy needs less fuel as it slows down. The plummet in oil prices from $145 a barrel to close to $100 is well known. Wholesale natural gas and electricity prices have fallen by a similar magnitude.
The Louisiana wholesale price for natural gas has gone from $1.30 per therm in early July to 76 cents this week.
Some folks, however, are still charging boom prices. BGE Home (888-243-4663), a lesser-regulated affiliate of BGE, is signing people up for $1.599 a therm. This is at a time BGE projects the price for its standard gas product (what everybody gets unless they sign up with an independent) will be around $1.11 per therm this winter - 30 percent less.
BGE Home bought its gas in July, a time when prices traditionally have been lower, said spokesman Aaron Koos. But not this July. (A free, 90-day service contract on your gas furnace or water heater makes BGE Home's agreement better than other deals at similar prices, he adds.)
Make sure you don't have a BGE Home contract from last year that automatically rolls over, locking you into the high rate. (Most households don't have BGE Home; they get the standard BGE gas service.)
Other deals aren't much better. MXenergy (800-785-4373) offers a fixed price of $1.339 a therm to BGE customers via its Web site.
Washington Gas Energy Services (888-884-9437), however, says it's trying to pass newly lower gas prices to households, offering one- and two-year fixed-price deals at $1.11 per therm.
That might be a good bet if you think prices will increase. But they might go even lower, especially if the economy goes into a deeper funk.
