Electricity Usage

[jrmylmach1]

Hey all, I have a question that I hope someone here can help with. We bought a house at the start of the year and have been remodeling for the last 4 months. We are not living in the house and only have an alarm system and a radon mitigation system drawing power. Nothing else. According to the brochure with the radon system, it should draw around $77/year of electricity. I don't think the alarm system would draw much at all.

So the question I have is why would our electrical usage be 414 kw for the last month? The house we are living in with 4 people in it has only used 800 for the month. And that is with doing 4 loads of laundry per week.

Something just doesn't seem right to me. Wife talked with the electric company and apparently the previous owners had changed the meter at the house 3 times previously. So I doubt it is the meter. What could cause this? And is there anyway to check to see if there is a draw somewhere?

Thanks to all you experts.

Jrmy

 

[travisd]

Turn off everything you know about and see if the meter is still moving.

Also, is the power company actually reading the meter, or have they been estimating? Sometimes here they do that due to weather.

Check their website as well for instructions on reading your own meter.

 

[G_P]

Have someone stand outside and watch the spinning wheel in the meter as you flip breakers one by one. Find the one that causes the biggest drop in speed.

But the best way is to pull the panel cover and put an amp clamp on each wire coming out of a breaker. Find which ones are drawing the most amps, then figure out why they are drawing that much power in an empty house.

A sump pump would draw a bit of power as would a submersible well pump.

 

[cg81]

Does it have an electric water heater?

 

[tdkkart]

One of these is super handy fro figuring out such problems:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009MDBU/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[MScott]

Neighbour with a grow-op???

 

[volleyball]

If you are remodeling, you must be using power tools and maybe lights. so you are living there

 

[jrmylmach1]

Man, all great responses. Thanks.

I am currently in Japan so when I get home on Wednesday I will be doing these. Unfortunately, there is no spinning wheel on this meter, just digital. (At least as far as I remember there is no wheel.)

I've been wanting to get one of those kill-a-watt things for a while. Now is a good excuse. Also, where can I get an amp clamp? Ok, see some on amazon. Any recommendations on good ones?

Oh, water heater is gas and currently turned off. No sump pump. Have a cistern pump but only runs if we turn on the water. No heat or a/c running either.

Thanks everyone.

 

[G_P]

You can get a clamp on ammeter at just about any hardware or big box store. The kill-a-watt is only good for checking the individual draw of an item you plug into it.

 

[mm08822]

Start reading the meter yourself and keep a record of the kwh's used based upon your known activities during the remodel - e.g. - read at start of saturday and read at end of sunday work - assuming you were only there on weekend to work. Check the last reading from the previous weekend to the start of the next.
Also, the weather is now warm enough in your location where you could kill the main (or half of the panel breakers) and see what you are getting for usage as well inbetween these periods. Disconnect anything plugged in that you don't need plugged in while you aren't there.
Where is the meter located releative to the rest of the incoming service? Is this an underground or overhead service?

 

[jrmylmach1]

It is an overhead service. Right now there is nothing plugged in. I have only been working for one week out of the month as I'm gone the other 3 weeks. I will check the usage as I'm working though.

As far as the amp clamp's, are the cheap ones at harbor freight good enough for what I will need to do?

 

[mm08822]

Ok so 1 out of 4 weeks is easier to check on. Record start and end of each day of work, and compare to next day start. Also turn off main for part of the other 3 weeks and record values. Maybe a neighbor can help with the 3 week test period.
Amp clamps are great for snapshots, but unless they are the trending type, it may not give you the needed info. Typically, it is one channel(circuit) at a time, unless you want to spend big $$$ for a one time use.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Would not be the first time some hidden cable was found run to a neighbor's house for some strange reason. Former co-worker lived on a lake, properties on the lake are leased from the Power Company that owns the lake and dam and generation plant. He shared a well with his neighbor. They each had a power feed going from their house to the well house. On the first of the month, they would switch from one power supply to the other. You can find all kinds of strange things.

Charles

 

[Falcon67]

If it's digital, see if your provider has a site where you can monitor usage. We can pull up graphs on our use by the hour if we want.

 

[Highbeam]

I had a similar problem. Bill was too high in my home. I already owned a kill-a-watt which is fine for fun but not the right tool for finding a power hog.

I bought a Klein brand clamp on ampmeter from home depot for under 50$. It's a cool tool. You can find power flowing from the meter, and then how much power is flowing to each circuit. You'll find some funny stuff like my oven eats 58 watts ALL the time. Trouble with this tool is that it doesn't keep track of anything, just snapshots.

So I bought the efergy home energy monitor from amazon for like 100 bucks or maybe 150$. Great tool. It just clamps onto the wires from the meter to the main breaker and the little remote display tells me instant wattage consumption, averages, and logs all the flows and stores the consumption for many days. I find the daily kwh consumption data very useful. It stays mounted to your panel, mines been on for at least a year now. Really great device for energy conservation nerds.

Oh and my power hog, it was the hot tub on the patio. That ****** eats 15-20 kwh per day.