About the amount of gas volume (LP Gas)

Hi, I have been living now in Higashi-Hiroshima since Nov 2023. I am wondering why I received an amazingly-high amount of gas bill (LP Marui gas).

- Last month, I paid around 5,800 Yen for the period of (5/11 - 12/8), so for 23 days of 7 m3 volume
- This month, I should pay around 14,000 Yen (12/8 - 1/11), so for 34 days of 18 m3 volume.

While the gas unit price varies depending on the prefecture, I do not want to discuss about the price. Instead, I am wondering why I now get a drastically-increasing volume of gas. I am living with my wife and my 5-month old baby, and we are just using the gas only for cooking and bathing. I am quite sure that the gas use per day for the current month is of similar intensity as the previous month. Also, we always set the temperature to 40 C.
Perhaps, do you have experience that can be shared with?
Thank you.

I always find my gas bill to be significantly higher in January and February because the water in storage is colder and takes a lot more gas to heat it up. Even though we actively don't use anything extra, our bill more than doubled, maybe trebles for the winter months.

You'll find it will go down significantly for the hotter months, don't worry. Your bills are very similar to mine

I see.. thanks for your sharing. But it still seems quite strange to me because the family next to me gets a bill for about 8 m3. So, basically it is similar with the previous month. I was only worried if there is a leak of gas piping.
Anyway, I will wait until February like you said.

If there is gas leaking outside, it can go unnoticed for a while. If you're smelling any gas, you should report it.

This isn't necessarily directed to you but if you didn't know, city gas is much cheaper than LP gas.

My winter gas bill dropped from 10,000 yen to 3,500 yen when I moved to a city gas apartment.

Thanks for your comment.

Well, I did some experiments within the past 2 days to check whether there is a piping gas leakage. So, I turned off everything related to the gas (e.g. stove and water heater) and let it for 30 minutes. I repeated it several times. I noticed there was no increase in the gas meter. So, I assumed there is no leakage (what do you think, is it sufficient, or do you have any other ideas?)

Indeed, I smelled gas several days ago but it was only when I was taking bath (I believe it is normal, isn't it)?

Yes, you are correct that city gas is much cheaper than the LG one. I read it from some blogs several days ago. But, we cannot choose it because it depends on the existing installation of the apartment. The first time I came here, I was asked by the landlord to call the LP Gas company to activate it. At that time, I did not understand the different between both of them.

Well, I am still amazed I have used 18 m3 of gas for 34 days, it equals to 0.53 m3 per day. It is too much and I believe I did not use it as much as that. I expect it would be within the range of 0.15 - 0.25 m3 per day for a normal use (cooking and bathing).

Your bills sound right to me, not only because of winter but because you started living with your baby in the latter part of your first bill. (And I'm glad to learn you already experimented on leakage.)

When we had a baby (decades ago), everyone from gas, electricity and water came knocking on our door asking if anything "drastic" happened in our life. I'd answer, "Well, we had a very tiny baby," and they'd say, "That's it."

Raising a human being really costs you. Be sure you check with your municipal so that you get all the support you're entitled to, especially because public servants don't come knocking on your door. But they're very helpful once you go ask for something (although sometimes you need to ask more than once).

It's also about time you and/or your wife join parent groups if you haven't joined one yet, because it helps you get local information. For example, you can compare bills with similar families in similar locations and even find out what you can do to make things better.

It's really worth the effort, though. Good luck on the many drama to come!

UPDATE:

Today, my neighbor bill has come. And as I expected, their use is much lower than ours.
So, for the same period (12/08 to 01/11) they used gas for 11.1 m3.

Meanwhile, our bill shows 18.2 m3 of gas use for the same period.

FYI, my neighbor is a family consisting of 2 adults, 1 children (not baby) and 1 baby.
I asked them about the intensity of cooking and bathing (2x cooking per day and 2x bathing). Basically, it is even higher than ours (2x cooking and 1x bathing).

So, I think, there is something not right with the gas in our apartment within that period.

Well.......

Have you discussed it with your gas company as well as your landlord?

Meanwhile, I think it's more to do with how you cook/bath rather than how many times you cook/bath.

For example, as it's getting colder, you might be stewing things on the gas longer or using a gas oven/rice-cooker while your neighbor is stir-frying and microwaving. Or you might be running your shower longer while they may be using the tub water to rinse. And I suppose you don't use hot water for your laundry or cleaning the house.

You can also try Googling sets of keywords such as "ガス代が高い　調べたい"
https://www.google.com/search?q=%E3%82%AC%E3%82%B9%E4%BB%A3%E3%81%8C%E...

To answer your question about smelling gas while you bathe. I've lived in 3 different places in Japan and I have never smelled gas inside my home.