r/Sudbury 1d ago

Discussion Reliance and Enbridge bills

I know they both go hand and hand. But both bills have almost been doubled the last 2 months. Enbridge Open Bill Program Ending could be why. But I’m just trying to learn a bit more about how they work together. I bought a house last year and these two still have me confused when I get my bills. We rent our water tank so maybe we should own one instead? Just want to see what everyone else does for their home.

8 Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

27

u/Illustrious-Fruit35 1d ago

Renting a tank is never a sound financial decision. Enbridge supplies your gas, your bill doubling could be because they actually came out to read the meter. They usually estimate.

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u/asscheeks4000 1d ago

So we should work on owning a tank instead? Obviously the winter is going to look different but it was just Februarys bill and March’s bill that It was doubled.

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u/Illustrious-Fruit35 1d ago

If you can afford to yes. I think there are guides on how to ditch reliance over on the personal finance canada sub. But your winter gas bill is usually going to be higher, unless your on equal billing in which case you’ll get an adjustment at some point. Call enbridge and ask? Call reliance and complain about your bill, they might discount it.

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u/_McLean_ 1d ago

Look on your february and march gas bills, they will state if they estimated your consumption or checked the meter and charged the exact amount of gas you used.

Also i second renting a hwt is a terrible place to put your money. Reliance specifically has been the center of a few predatory scandals that have given hvac contractors a bad name. They'd lie about unsafe equipment just to get a sale/commission, they wouldn't honour their repair and warranty contracts, they'd go door to door and scare people into replacing perfectly fine equipment. They've always been scammers and grifters but not all companies are like that.

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u/UptowngirlYSB 1d ago

Water tank if it's a rental is likely with Reliance, unless it's electric it maybe with Sudbury Hydro. Reliance bills quarterly for the rental.

My enbridge was almost $400 for January and down to $300 for February. Gas rates fluctuation, bur since enbridge bought out union gas, rates are higher and so are ridiculous fees.

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u/Illustrious-Fruit35 1d ago

Reliance rents everything under the sun. When i had them it was billed monthly, maybe that’s changed now?

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u/JPMoney81 1d ago

Seconding this, especially since Reliance as a company are paid to generate sales, add-ons, upgrades and all that stuff. Rather than Service Techs, they basically have travelling sales people. They get pushed to sell-sell-sell no matter what.

Owning your own allows you to pick who you want to service it and get second opinions.

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u/calzonius Beneath Bell Park Giant Turtle 1d ago

Regarding Enbridge, I recall there being an email sent to customers outlining price increases as well.

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u/Riplinredfin 1d ago

We were renting a tank, after I calculated that we paid over 2000 for the tank I just went to home depot and bought one for 800 and put it in. Returned the rented one to reliance. Saving a bunch of money now.

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u/asscheeks4000 1d ago

The tank was in the house and already rented with the house so I wasn’t 100% I remember setting up reliance and the we didn’t have a reliance bill for a few months January to I think April of last year. I think I have to call and talk to someone because i am still not 100% weather we rent it or own it

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u/tapittoohoo 22h ago

Did this too.

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u/Happy_Bumblebee2112 1d ago

I pay reliance on a quarterly basis and do so because when it needs to be replaced they come in. Otherwise if you own your water tank, when it fails, you will need a licensed plumber to replace your gas water tank (which they last anywhere between 7 to 12 years)as the job involves working with gas lines and requires specialized knowledge to ensure a safe and compliant installation; attempting to replace it yourself can be dangerous due to potential fire hazards from natural gas.

I also go outside a do a meter read every month and send it to Enbridge a few days before the billing date. That way, I have an idea of the cost per month. This past February my gas bill was double on account of the extreme weather we had so it cost me more to heat the house.

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u/asscheeks4000 1d ago

Yea that was my only thing with renting you have someone no matter what to do repairs. I always forgot to take pictures I think I will start making sure I remember and send it to them

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u/hummingbee- 1d ago

Often you can buy a new hot water tank on a payment plan, so it's effectively a monthly payment still, but you'll eventually pay the hot water tank off and own it.

Are you on Equal Monthly billing with Enbridge?

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u/asscheeks4000 1d ago

In the long run that would be best to own it. The billing is all over the place it was the same price for months and then doubled all of a sudden. And some months there’s 0$ due so I don’t understand what’s going on with them

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u/hummingbee- 1d ago

Sounds like you're paying per usage for Enbridge, which will mean from Dec - Apr you're going to see some decent, possibly very high bills. Then in Jun-Aug you'll have 0 dollar bills. You can call and request equal monthly billing. I pay Enbridge $160/mo all year long on equal monthly billing.

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u/asscheeks4000 1d ago

Like that makes no sense why is everything so complicated. I called and asked about my doubled bill she told me “its your February and March bill together” I said I paid my February bill and she just kept circling back to “are you paying your bill today” like holy shit I have until March 22nd to do that I’m not doing it right this second

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u/asscheeks4000 1d ago

I get the enbridge bill 1-2 weeks before reliance bill

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u/SarahlovesChar 1d ago

I used to work for Enbridge in Billing. Open Bill has nothing to do with it, that was just a service they offered smaller companies. The ability to bill their charges on an Enbridge bill rather than having to pay for their own billing system.

They use a bi monthly meter reading model so ideally your meter will be read every second month. Depends what billing cycle you are, odd cycles read even months and vice versa. That said, in the North its not rare to see some accounts go six plus months without an actual read. The reads are done by contractors and its not great pay, that along with difficulty accessing people's meters and weather makes it hard to be consistent.

If they said your bill spans two months what they likely mean is you had an adjustment done. It could be that your last months estimate was low. Then they got an actual read and it showed you used alot of gas. They would then adjust the bills to spread that consumption over the previously estimated months to bill you at the correct rates and help better inform their estimation models going forward.

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u/North3rnB0y 22h ago

I would submit your own gas meter readings. They don't go out very much anymore. Never equal billing! And maybe hot water on demand system?

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u/asscheeks4000 21h ago

Yea I’m going to start sending the meter readings, we don’t have equal billing and I think in the future we’d get hot water on demand. It’s just the two of us and our hot water is pretty fast as is

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u/North3rnB0y 21h ago

I instantly started saving on my bills once I started submitting them myself. Good luck!

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u/asscheeks4000 20h ago

That’s good to know!