For that small of a house, I would think you could do better than that price. Is it an old house with no insulation and lots of holes for outside air to come in?
78°F in the summer is a good temperature to have. 78°F in the winter is a freaking massive waste of money and our precious natural resources. It should be closer to 68°F in the winter. Tell your MIL to wear a sweater. Buy her some wool clothing for $300 and save your family $1000/year. That is what clothing is for. This is gradeschool 101.
He has budget billing. They average his usage for the whole year, tack on a bit of difference if they expect significant price changes, and then bill that monthly to him. That means, his next price change may be a year away. He'll never be able to do that experiment that you proposed.
Agreed.
Your point is correct, your made up number isn't. A furnace is more efficient than an oven, thus it'll use less gas to heat up the house the same amount. However, if she only needs/wants to have one room hot, then you may be heating rooms that aren't occupied. Heat wasted in those rooms goes out to the cold winter air and is wasted. Thus, it is possible that it'll be cheaper to heat just the kitchen with the oven than to heat the whole house with the furnace. But still, that can't be a safe thing to do.
