love the gas

Okay, so for some reason when they "renovated" our house, they removed all gas appliances (including the stove!) and replaced them with electric ones, except for the water heater. They even disconnected the gas logs, but left them in place. (Uh, thanks, guys.)

So our first gas bill (thanks, deregulation!) looks something like this:

From 05/02/07 to 05/28/07

AGLC May Base Charge...........$17.60
Catalyst Charge..........................5.95
Sales Tax....................................1.86
Gas Charges................................3.01
Turn On Fee.............................50.00
Total Charges...........................78.42

So we used a total of 3.075 therms ($3.01) but getting those 3.075 therms to our house cost us another $75! (Thanks again, deregulation!)

My dad has offered to come help put in a 220 line so we can get a new electric water heater, since over the course of a year, the gas bill would basically pay for a new one. Not sure how much it will raise our electric bill, but I can't imagine that it would be $30 a month more. Could it? I saw where Georgia Power is offering a big rebate if you buy one of those expensive energy efficient ones (guessing they cost close to $1000) that are all covered in foam and stuff, but unfortunately, we have city of E.P. power--which I believe is provided to them by Georgia Power, but minus the rebates.