Unexplained Doubling of Electric Use

[Trainman]

I'm looking for advice and ideas on figuring out why in the last year my home electricity use has doubled, with no significant changes I can pinpoint in our usage patterns. Looking on a month to month basis, it looks as if about 10 months ago our consumption increased, and it's pretty consistent that when I compare similar time periods from the year before, the usage is approximately double.

We run the usual kitchen appliances (electric range, dishwasher, and refrigerator) plus a additional refrigerator in the basement. Both refrigerators are more than 20 years old, but seem to work well. The second story of the house is electric baseboard heat which we have turned off in rooms we don't routinely use in winter. The only change we've made in the last year is to replace two old tube TV's with new LCD flatscreens, and we've replace one window air conditioner with a similar sized unit.

I have not called our electric utility yet to check our meter. I'm going to buy a meter to measure the draw of some of our larger items. We had the cable from our outside meter to the breaker panel replaced about 10 years ago, as the insulation on the old one had deteriorated. While I'm confident with replacing switches and outlets, I don't get into the breaker panel....I leave that to an electrician.

Greatly appreciate any ideas you might have on how to approach this.

 

[stormin]

Happened to me. I had a PVC line running out to the shop underground to the faucet. Standing water on the grass. I dug down and it was leaking pretty good. As a side note we were getting a lot of air in the house water lines. Our freaking well pump was running all the time. It was drawing the well so far down it was pulling air. Our power bill was over $400 bucks till I fixed that.

 

[stormin]

Also go crazy and get LED lights. (saves electric)

 

[DC73]

A few thoughts.

Any chance your electric meter was changed out about the time you noticed the increase? As electric meters get old, they tend to slow down. Changing them out returns the accuracy to normal.

Any chance the baseboard heat has been on anyway? Or if you have a heat pump, any chance the back up resistance heat is stuck on?

Electric water heater? If so, is it functioning properly? Notice the water is hotter than normal?

Defective water well pump running all the time?

To double electric use with no known lifestyle changes has to involve a fairly high wattage piece of equipment. Focus there first.

DC

 

[LXCam]

The first test I would suggest is leave everything plugged in but turned off. I would only unplug the refrigerator or freezer. Then check to see if you have any load. If you do and you know for certain everything was turned offf isolate the circuit that has the load and see what you can find.

If there is zero load then start testing specific items. Compare your measurements against the name plate rating of whatever it is and look for large discrepancies.

If you aren't able to identify anything then have the utility company come out and check the meter.

 

[Trainman]

DC73: Pretty sure the meter hasn't been replaced, as the monthly bill readings have continued to increase numerically. If it had been replaced, I'm assuming the readings would start over from zero (?).

Checked the baseboard heat, it's not currently on. We did run it periodically in the winter. No electric water heater, we have an indirect hot water tank heated by a zone off our boiler. The hot water tank was replaced last year. It's hard to tell if the circulator pump would have been running more with the new tank, but out natural gas usage has stayed about the same so I'm thinking that's not the culprit. No well pump, we're on municipal water. We do have a sump pump, and it's been a much wetter year this year than last...I'll have to check that out.

LX, I understand what you're saying about finding a phantom load of some sort, but not sure how to measure the load on a circuit at the panel, short of going out and watching the outside meter. The meter I referred to in my original post would measure the draw at the outlet. I'm assuming there's a different meter that can measure the load on the individual circuits as they enter the panel box?

 

[LXCam]

I thought you were talking about a clamp on meter for "yes" checking individual wires within the panel.

 

[djhnsn]

Could be 1 of the refrigerators stuck in defrost.

 

[JRC3]

I've seen plenty of sump pump switches stick causing the pump to stay on. Once the basin and pump dry up not sure how much a dry load would have on a motor's power consumption. A pump could also stick on and thermal and be off when you look at it, feel it and it should be dead cold.

I see you have municipal water. What about a septic pump? Or a grinder or lift pump tied to the municipal sanitation. I've seen those around mountains and lakes. It could be stuck on.

 

[DJ_Schmo]

Not to jump to the negative but is it possible a neighbor is "borrowing" power somehow?


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[JRC3]

I've seen tenants hook up big hungry grow lights and start fires in old wiring. Do you have a son with a locked basement apartment or anything?

 

[ard]

What kind of WHs are we talking about?

Like a $40 a month bill goes to 80, or a 400 goes to 800?

Do you have any underground wires on 'your' side of the meter?

 

[mm08822]

Op, you said the meter readings have doubled each month that the problem has been discovered. Is that actually the case or is it that you see a consistant offset every month - like 500 kwh as an example?

If something was running constantly it should be a constant kwh every month.

Can you provide several good consecutive readings and for the same months that are high?

 

[DHCrocks]

check out your air conditioner. ours was low on refrigerant a few years ago and the electric bill went up a couple of hundred bucks for the month. had it refilled and it dropped back to normal. the compressor was running longer then normal to cool off the house.

 

[dscheidt]

The electric bill in our house was super high the month we bought it, even though we didn't live in it. 1000W of lights were left on in the attic, for almost the whole time.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

OP- what kind of meter do you have?

Smart meter thats remotely read or old analog meter that requires a meter reader to come out?

If old analog meter, is it possible they are estimating the reads instead of coming out and actually reading it?

Also, the meter reader might have screwed up on inputting one or more digits. Have you compared the readings on your bill to the total Kwhs on the meter?

And lastly, how much power useage are we talking here?

Whats the nameplate draw on the refrigerators?

Not to jump to the negative but is it possible a neighbor is "borrowing" power somehow?

It would be very obvious and not easily done.

What kind of WHs are we talking about?

Like a $40 a month bill goes to 80, or a 400 goes to 800?

Do you have any underground wires on 'your' side of the meter?

Without knowing the Kwh were talking about, its anyone's guess.

Op, you said the meter readings have doubled each month that the problem has been discovered. Is that actually the case or is it that you see a consistant offset every month - like 500 kwh as an example?

If something was running constantly it should be a constant kwh every month.

Can you provide several good consecutive readings and for the same months that are high?

 

[Gmonkee]

I agree with starting the search at a big appliance or heater.

Nothing lasts forever and some give few warnings of failure.

 

[DC73]

DC73: Pretty sure the meter hasn't been replaced, as the monthly bill readings have continued to increase numerically. If it had been replaced, I'm assuming the readings would start over from zero (?)

Your assumption is correct.

Could be 1 of the refrigerators stuck in defrost.

Forgot about this one. Kinda rare but I've seen it happen.

Not to jump to the negative but is it possible a neighbor is "borrowing" power somehow?

This is not out of the realm of possibility. One time I helped a guy discover his extra high electric consumption was due to a neighbor illegally tapping into his underground electric service.

DC

 

[nsula_country]

May have a "ground loop" occurring. Can you place a clamp meter on your ground at meter base? Or secondary grounds if existing?

CT

 

[JazzBlueRT]

I'm looking for advice and ideas on figuring out why in the last year my home electricity use has doubled, with no significant changes I can pinpoint in our usage patterns. Looking on a month to month basis, it looks as if about 10 months ago our consumption increased, and it's pretty consistent that when I compare similar time periods from the year before, the usage is approximately double.

We run the usual kitchen appliances (electric range, dishwasher, and refrigerator) plus a additional refrigerator in the basement. Both refrigerators are more than 20 years old, but seem to work well. The second story of the house is electric baseboard heat which we have turned off in rooms we don't routinely use in winter. The only change we've made in the last year is to replace two old tube TV's with new LCD flatscreens, and we've replace one window air conditioner with a similar sized unit.

I have not called our electric utility yet to check our meter. I'm going to buy a meter to measure the draw of some of our larger items. We had the cable from our outside meter to the breaker panel replaced about 10 years ago, as the insulation on the old one had deteriorated. While I'm confident with replacing switches and outlets, I don't get into the breaker panel....I leave that to an electrician.

Greatly appreciate any ideas you might have on how to approach this.

LCD TV's do not always use less electricity than CRT, especially smart TV with a quad or octacore processor. If you replace a 20 inch CRT with a 42 inch LCD (not LED) your electricity usage will go up 50%. It could even be worse if you did not set up the LCD correctly and have brightness and contrast cranked all the way up. If it is a 4k TV, electricity usage will increase even more.

This is also compounded with the fact that people think the LCD is super efficient and leave it on longer.

Also look for power bricks left plugged in.

 

[nsula_country]

LCD TV's do not always use less electricity than CRT, especially smart TV with a quad or octacore processor. If you replace a 20 inch CRT with a 42 inch LCD (not LED) your electricity usage will go up 50%. It could even be worse if you did not set up the LCD correctly and have brightness and contrast cranked all the way up. If it is a 4k TV, electricity usage will increase even more.

This is also compounded with the fact that people think the LCD is super efficient and leave it on longer.

Also look for power bricks left plugged in.

This has truth to it... But is not a significant increase in load.

OP, we need you to tell us what your monthly kWhr usage was and what is it now. Monthly 16 and monthly 17... Doubling 300 kWh to 600 kWh is different than 2000 kWh to 4000 kWh. Please provide us with this information.

CT

 

[DFB]

I recently had a similar problem my electric was running xtra high at least for me. I was shocked when I opened my last two bills. I finally discovered one of my twin sewage pumps was flowing right back into the tank right at the pump connection (best I can figure was some crud plugged the exit line drain back hole and that cause the pump to toque shift on it stand) the connection had pull apart so the pump was working away but the water level wasn't going down so it wouldn't shut off.



I pride myself on low electric bill. My electric service provider sends out monthly reports of compared usage of the nearest 100 homes I am always in the top 10 percentile for low use. I cant believe those who households bills run into the 100's for a month.

I have a nearby friend who takes care of her mother they live together and her electric bill is phenomenal.

Some things things you have to watch though and I am supposed get a slight discount on the first several 100 kilowatts used and a few times in the past they didn't credit that and while back they had some cedits they passed on to consumers which lowered the bill but then they had an charges increase so the gap looked even wider after that!

I just did new LED'S in the house to replace my halogens and have 100w 1600lumen CFL's in my garage which are often on during the day and in the evening hours are on all the time. That switch over helped bring my bill down a lot as did a new refrigerator. but I'm sure that is old news to many people though

 

[toplessHO]

any underground lines that may be "leaking"(bad insulation)
dont dig to find with power on.

 

[yhprum]

Most utiilities will provide a usage chart going back a year. Have you been given one?
If usage hasn't changed much its the pricing....

 

[James-W]

check out your air conditioner. ours was low on refrigerant a few years ago and the electric bill went up a couple of hundred bucks for the month. had it refilled and it dropped back to normal. the compressor was running longer then normal to cool off the house.

If your air-conditioner was low on Freon you have a leak in the sealed system. You need to find the leak and repair it before adding Freon.

 

[ard]

any underground lines that may be "leaking"(bad insulation)
dont dig to find with power on.

I asked a page ago...OP doesn't seem real interested....