Utility Charges Double For Monoxide Detectors $78 From Gas Company, $39 At Hardware Store
Puget Sound Energy is offering its customers the chance to purchase carbon monoxide detectors, but at about twice the price consumers might pay at their local hardware store.
In a notice sent with monthly bills to its 550,000 gas customers in five Western Washington counties, the state-regulated utility priced the Nighthawk model at $78.
An Eagle Hardware store in Seattle charged $47 for the same detector in November and is now charging $39.
“Oh my goodness! Wow. Amazing,” assistant state attorney general Rob Manifold said when told of the price differential. Manifold’s job is to represent utility ratepayers before the state Utilities and Transportation Commission.
Jim Lazar, a consulting economist to the attorney general’s office, called the price disparity troubling.
Liz Norton, a market analyst for Puget Sound Energy, said the utility was caught off guard when North Carolina manufacturer Kidde Safety provided retailers, including Eagle Hardware, with the model Nov. 1. Previously, only utilities had been supplied the model.
She could not explain why Puget Sound Energy is charging nearly double the price found at the hardware store, other than to say the $78 price includes $7 in mailing and handling costs.
The utility plans to offer customers who bought the $78 detectors after Nov. 1 the choice of a refund or the chance to swap their detectors for a better model, yet to be produced, that will feature a rechargeable battery. The amount of the refund hadn’t been determined yet, Norton said.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that can accumulate when any fuel-burning equipment - including gas furnaces - has insufficient air to burn the fuel completely.
Puget Sound Energy includes a chemical in its gas so customers can smell it if it leaks.
The detectors sold by Puget Sound Energy come with a sevenyear warranty, while the retail store version includes a five-year warranty, said John Szostak, Western market manager for Kidde.
While Kidde has not yet produced the model with a rechargeable battery, the company did offer Puget Sound Energy another upgraded model that was available only to utilities, he said.
Kidde tries to provide utilities with models not available to retailers because “no utility company can compete directly with retail on price,” Szostak said.
Meanwhile, local heating contractors are upset that Puget Sound Energy is selling the carbon monoxide detectors in competition with them, saying the utility has the advantage of a vast customer base.
Burton Bogren, owner of Gas Appliance Services in Ballard, complained that the monthly utility bill is “a very powerful tool” for selling merchandise, and is not available to heating contractors.
The utility was formed last February with the merger of Puget Sound Power & Light Co., a private electric utility, and Washington Natural Gas Co., a private gas utility.