While I certainly don’t dispute Ms. Senouci’s sentiments about Avista and their current rates in her letter of Jan. 30, I feel something is terribly out of line if she is experiencing a $400 utility bill while keeping the temperature set at 55 degrees, turning off her heat at night and sealing off all but two of her rooms.

We have a natural gas furnace and water heater. Our home is 2,000 square feet and because my husband is disabled and unable to tolerate cold, we keep our thermostat set at 72 degrees in the daytime and 67 at night. We also use our gas fireplace from time to time. Our latest natural gas bill came to under $215 and the total Avista bill was $317. This billing statement covered Christmas and we had Christmas lights for at least three of those weeks.

I would suggest that Ms. Senouci needs to have a home energy audit done on her residence. Her latest bill has information enclosed that explains how she can do this either with or without Internet access. She may find that she can easily correct some of the things that cause large utility bills.

Carol Callahan

Spokane Valley