We have natural gas for our water heater (about to go) and for our stove and have been saving to replace both with electric alternatives (induction/convection for stove and tankless electric water heater, power provided by our solar panels). I called our utility today to find out once we replace both, could we have the gas turned off for 8 mos of the year where we don't use heat? ($13/mos just to be hooked up to natural gas, regardless of usage). YES! We just need to call and cancel and then call to restart service! $104 to spend less than 10 min on the phone per year. What a great hourly rate of pay!!! ;)
If you are in a similar situation and use natural gas for heating and have only 1 or 2 appliances run by natural gas, you may want to consider something similar (especially if you only use it for heating!). $104 is only a start to pay for a water heater, however, since ours is already 9 years old and inconsistently heating (with very hard water), we know its days are numbered. Figure out roughly what a new water heater will cost you (tankless saves family using less than 40 gallons of heating water/ day roughly 35-45% of heating water costs, 40-80 gallons a day save 15-25%) and look at your payback.
You can easily nudge your gallon number lower by washing clothes only in cold water, using a shower head with .5-1.5 gpm flow rate vs. the standard 2.5 gpm, and running your dishwasher only when it is full.
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