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Posted By: Joey D High Electric bills - 03/23/07 10:23 PM
I have a customer that keeps getting very high bills. They are about 1100 sq ft and the bill runs about 260 per month.
I need to set up a recording meter I think as when I go there to look at it I get readings of 19/12 on each leg and between 5 and 6 on the neutral.
I think they leave everything in the house on except when I am there.
Can anyone recommend a low cost recording meter so I can calculate the bill out myself or have any better idea to solve this?
Posted By: HotLine1 Re: High Electric bills - 03/23/07 11:44 PM
Joey:
A KWHr recorder is not cheap. I have one, and I think it was $7-900, when I bought it.

That said, from experience, utility meters (POCO's) are accurate! Here in NJ, the Board of Public Utilities (go figure), a Govt agency regulates the POCO's, and has stringent tolerances for metering & billing. You also could request the POCO to check the meter.

That said, it could boil down that the person complaining about the bill just that....complaining. BTW, have you had any rate increases (KWHr or others)

John
Posted By: Dnkldorf Re: High Electric bills - 03/23/07 11:45 PM
Your power company may be able to give provide you hourly data, for a fee of course. Some can provide you this going back a year or two. Some do, some may not.
Some may provide it for free, I am not familar with all of them out there, it may be worth a phone call.

About as cheap as it gets, if they give it to you for free, but don't count on it.
Posted By: LarryC Re: High Electric bills - 03/23/07 11:51 PM
Check forstuck on heater strips in the air coditioner or heat pump. Is the defrost constantly running in the freezer? Did someone leave a unit heater plugged in and running in the basement?

Assuming $.20/KW-Hr and constant load 24-7 yields

(19+12(A))x120(V) x 24(Hr) x 30(Day) x .20($)
______________________________________________ = $535.68
1000(W)

Larry C
Posted By: renosteinke Re: High Electric bills - 03/24/07 05:39 PM
Check the water heater for an element that is leaking current to ground, through the water. That's good for $50 / month.
Posted By: Joey D Re: High Electric bills - 03/25/07 12:14 AM
The power company came out to check the meter but said it was fine. It's an old meter and I was surprised they didn't go with the new digital ones. They have gas water heater and forced hot air.
Normaly I would not bother with this type of call but it's a unit I wired last year and they have been complaining about the bills so I want to see for myself why it's high and have some data to back it up.
Thanks for the tips and help.
Posted By: SteveFehr Re: High Electric bills - 03/25/07 03:18 PM
"Keep getting high bills"- when did this start? On the January statement? Did they, by any chance, have a TON of christmas lights up this year? Something like that won't catch up until the following statement, and might lag behind a bit if they didn't take them down until the middle of January.
Posted By: SteveFehr Re: High Electric bills - 03/25/07 03:23 PM
I don't like this ultra-short edit period! I want to EDIT my post, not make a reply 5 minutes later...

Electricity here is seasonal, but averages about 6 cents a kwh. Each amp of continuous 120V works out to a little over $5/month. 15A space heater in a poorly insulated area? $80/month. It's funny- a typical CFL will literally pay for itself in a month.
Posted By: George Re: High Electric bills - 03/25/07 03:39 PM
"I get readings of 19/12 on each leg"

30amps at 120volts, 24hours/day, and 30days/month works out to a $250 bill.

I think the bill is high for a house that size, but the amps you measure are high also.

I would suggest that you measure the actual amps on each circuit, determine which circuit is causing the problem, and fix that circuit.
Posted By: SteveFehr Re: High Electric bills - 03/25/07 04:04 PM
In normal use, I get 3 and 4 amps at my house, and I can run the entire place (all lights, computers, clocks, refrigerators, TVs- everything we use normally) on a 3kW generator that's so underloaded we have to turn on every light in the house to get my computer UPS to quit whining about a 125V overvoltage. I'd imagine this is typical of most homes. I can even run my heat pump off it if I'm careful to turn everything else off.

But I have electric heat, hot water, cooking and everything else so it spikes, and most of my energy cost is related to this.

Did you meter invidual branches and see where the current draw was coming from? I agree, that's the next obvious course of action.
Posted By: jdo1942 Re: High Electric bills - 03/25/07 06:39 PM
Be sure the person is not a "light freak". Had one of these and the person would leave her light on 24hrs a day. All the light fixtures had 100w lamps. She was pulling about 10 amps all the time and complained about high bills.
Posted By: RODALCO Re: High Electric bills - 03/25/07 07:35 PM
I second that with SteveFehr. Measure all individual circuits with a clip on ammeter and work out which one has a high unexplained use on it.
Then trace back which appliance is the culprit.

Also the meter was checked by the POCO ? I have done field meter testing for over 10 years in the POCO and meters rarely fail.
Generally they tend to be slow when bearings wear out.
A lightning strike may damage the brake magnet sometimes but you have guaranteed damage to home appliances as well.

Electronic meters are very accurate but are known to have sometimes unexplainable errors when capacitirs fail on the internal circuitboards.

Even 40 and 50 year old meters are still well within their accuracy class.

Good luck with your findings !
Posted By: Joey D Re: High Electric bills - 03/25/07 10:03 PM
You guys are on it, lighting is one of the big draws and so is the furnace as it runs a lot during the winter. They have a small fridge and a large on. Nothing by itself is large but there are 6 breakers that draw more than the usual 2-3 amps.
My wanting the recording was to get a month of readings as you all know they don't leave the lights on all the time, at least thats what they tell me.
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