High Electric Bill

[Redoverfarm]

Just got my electric bill for the last 33 days and it has just about doubled.  They did have a rate increase but I don't think that it is why it has escalated so much.  Can anyone who is ON grid give any advice on what would burn an additional 900 KW.  That is exactly what my monthly KW has risen over the same time period as last year. There has been nothing added that new to the system.  In fact we were w/o power for three days.  I thought it would be down a little.  WRONG.  The DW said that she noticed that the shower is not as hot as it normally is and I was thinking that I may have a element burned out in the Hot water heater.  Probably a top element as the host water deminishes rather fast.  Would this in it's self cause a higher than normal consumption?  I will test it and see what it looks like. Any ideas of what to look for?

[Mike 870]

You don't have electric heat do you? That would be the easy answer if the average temp is down over last years period.

[ScottA]

John do you read your own meter or do they do it? I've seen them guess at mine for several months then come out and read it and I suddenly get a crazy bill.

[Terry]

My electric bill also doubled. It was $500.00 in January and  $35.00 in February. Go figure 
We will probably all be paying higher prices for the outages from the ice storm.

[Redoverfarm]

I guess I should have clarified the heat aspect but I am a ' at home nurse and babysitter" today with the little on.  I have a heat pump/gas furnace combo.  The low temp's should not effect it as the heat pump has a outside thermostat that switches to gas furnace when below 40F.  Yes the furnace would probably come on more often when temps are below 40F but it would just be the fan and that in itself would not jump that much.  Nothing different that I know of other than a neighbor 1/4 below got 3 phase put in but that shouldn't effect mine. 

As for reading the meter.  They alternate months of reading and estimating.  Unfortuneately this was a reading month. 

Back to staining doors in the basement.

[peternap]

First, make sure it's not an estimated bill, John. I'd guess it was and they quite often estimate high.

Check your HW elements. I doubt that is the cause but it's a start.

[bayview]

 
   If your hot water heater was leaking, it wouldn't allow the elements to effectively heat the water, also, causing the higher electric bill . . .

[Redoverfarm]

Well it's not the Hot Water heater.  Both elements check out OK with Ohm meter.  I did call the power company.  Suggested trying a breaker box elimination check by shutting everything down and then intermitently turning each on and see which circuit has the greatest power drain.  I guess that is next.   

The employee said that there was definitely something in the house as I have already used $30 in power for 5 days when I gave her the new meter reading. Ouch.    That would eliminate the estimate reading from the true reading.

[devildog]

could be powerloss from a loose connection. main lines in panel sometimes need to be retightened, because its alluminum it expands and contracts(make sure to turn off power), I actually had a house burn because of alluminum wire. the NEC allowed it in small wiring for 2yrs(I think). my house was built in that time. I hope you can figure it out, thats alot of money

[harry51]

Do you have a well with an electric pump on the property? If the pump was running more than usual, it could explain the excess electric usage. One thing that commonly happens with submersible pumps is a leak develops in the drop pipe. The leaking water falls right back into the well so no leak is visible on the outside, but the pump has to work long and hard to get to shutoff pressure.

[considerations]

A remote possibility is someone tapping into your feeder line.  Wouldn't be the first time.

[Sassy]

The power in the valley house was up $50-70for a couple months - noticed the renter had plugged in the old freezer in our shop - I'd intentionally stopped using it because it was such a power hog - he was keeping ice in it...  when I noticed it, I told him politely that he was more than welcome to use the freezer, only use his own power   

Oh, and our water heater was leaking - I showed it to Glenn & he tightened up the flex pipe fittings on top of it & that took care of that. 

The power was down $50 this month...