Over the last frigid week, use of natural gas was high in Saskatchewan, but fell just short of a record set in December.

Though it was cold over the last week — so was December, which lacked the bright sunshine that we had late last month and over the weekend.

This, and slightly less industrial use of gas in late February than in December, took the edge off demand for gas.

He also advised SaskEnergy customers to prepare for a shock when their bills arrive. They’re bound to be higher than usual in the winter and make a good case for getting on the utilities’ equalized payments plan, which spreads out the financial shock over 12 months, as opposed to just one or two.

There’s an interesting thing to how we use natural gas: typically peaks between 6:30 and 8 a.m., when homes’ furnaces come to life after a long, cold night, and water heaters are producing water for showers.

On the last frigid weekend, so many furnaces were cutting in and running longer to warm up homes that the peak hours were extended a bit to the period between 4 .am. to 10 a.m.