Electric bill increase after rain.

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PetrosA

PetrosA

Senior Member
Location
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Aside from that tank maybe having some influence on the bill, who would want an old, rickety container holding a few thousand gallons of water a few feet away from the wall of your house?!? If that thing collapses towards the house, it'll find every weakness in that wall ;)

If the customer claims the bill is more than triple normal, I'd start with taking a look at the last two months' bills and compare them to the same months from a year ago. If the customer can't supply older bills, request the info from the POCO. You need to find out exactly what the increase in kW/h is. Also, determine how the customer is determining the daily usage from rainy days. Are they taking their own readings on the meter or do they have daily usage available online or are they just assuming?

Don't forget to check whether they've opted for a different supplier. Oftentimes those contracts include fine print that explains how rates can change from month to month and I've seen them go way more than 3x in price in a short amount of time. In those cases the usage doesn't even have to change for the bills to skyrocket.

If you determine that usage has gone up it's simple math to figure out what types of appliances may be causing it. If you find those appliances, you're done. If not, you have to look for real leaks to ground.

With all the underground lines and exposed conduit on that place you might have your hands full for a while ;)
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
PetrosA said:
Aside from that tank maybe having some influence on the bill, who would want an old, rickety container holding a few thousand gallons of water a few feet away from the wall of your house?!? If that thing collapses towards the house, it'll find every weakness in that wall ;)

If the customer claims the bill is more than triple normal, I'd start with taking a look at the last two months' bills and compare them to the same months from a year ago. If the customer can't supply older bills, request the info from the POCO. You need to find out exactly what the increase in kW/h is. Also, determine how the customer is determining the daily usage from rainy days. Are they taking their own readings on the meter or do they have daily usage available online or are they just assuming?

Don't forget to check whether they've opted for a different supplier. Oftentimes those contracts include fine print that explains how rates can change from month to month and I've seen them go way more than 3x in price in a short amount of time. In those cases the usage doesn't even have to change for the bills to skyrocket.

If you determine that usage has gone up it's simple math to figure out what types of appliances may be causing it. If you find those appliances, you're done. If not, you have to look for real leaks to ground.

With all the underground lines and exposed conduit on that place you might have your hands full for a while ;)
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Good point to check usage more so then dollar amount, also if usage is pretty low to begin with, it doesn't take much load to make a major impact on what is "normal".
 
PetrosA

PetrosA

Senior Member
Location
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
K8MHZ said:
OP said usual is $3 a day. That's 90+ per month, way more than I pay, but I have very little electric loads. Still, 90 a month is neither high nor low.
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Relativity of the bill is a good point also. If someone moves into a house with a regularly running sump pump from a house which didn't have one before, they're in for a real shock. Same goes for well pump vs. city water.

For my house "regular" usage is around 42 kW/h per day. For others, that's astronomically high. My wife bakes all our bread and cooks dinner every day, we have three computers on non-stop, and mostly LED lighting. Additionally, we have electric cooking, an electric dryer, a commercial (6 quart) espresso machine on 24/7 and two refrigerators. In spite of that, our bills are still almost half of what they were where we used to live, where we had a well pump and a sump pump that ran almost non-stop every time it rained because the house's basement was built below the water table. Some of my customers regularly pay $600-$1200 per month. It's all relative.
 
growler

growler

Senior Member
Location
Atlanta,GA
electricalist said:
A customer says if the ground is wet from rain the electric bill double.
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electricalist said:
From the pictures I got from them the meter is at the poco pole by the street then goes underground to a 3r panel outside .From that 3r panel it goes back underground to a detach garage/Apt..
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K8MHZ said:
OP said usual is $3 a day. That's 90+ per month, way more than I pay, but I have very little electric loads. Still, 90 a month is neither high nor low.
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That $90 a month sounds high for very little use but once you add a seperate apartment it's about right. If you have a separate water heater (detached garage) then things could add up. If you divide the bill between a house and an apartment that's only $45 ea which would be cheap.

Do these people have any electric heat they use? In that part of Texas I would think it rains more in the cooler part of the year and people often use a heater to dry out the moisture in the air. You add some electric heat to sump pumps running and I can see a double electric bill.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
growler said:
That $90 a month sounds high for very little use but once you add a seperate apartment it's about right. If you have a separate water heater (detached garage) then things could add up. If you divide the bill between a house and an apartment that's only $45 ea which would be cheap.

Do these people have any electric heat they use? In that part of Texas I would think it rains more in the cooler part of the year and people often use a heater to dry out the moisture in the air. You add some electric heat to sump pumps running and I can see a double electric bill.
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I was thinking about suggesting that during rainy weather it is cooler and maybe some heating is part of the energy use at that time.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
PetrosA said:
Relativity of the bill is a good point also. If someone moves into a house with a regularly running sump pump from a house which didn't have one before, they're in for a real shock. Same goes for well pump vs. city water.
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City water typically comes with another bill - so you need to factor in the water bill before saying it costs more to pump your own water. Some places city water is higher, some places you can pump it for less. This also is dependent on electric rates in the area. Municipalities need to test and apply appropriate treatment to deliver safe drinking water. If you have your own well - you are on your own on determining if it is safe and if you need treatment.

If you are watering a lawn you probably don't care about treatment of that water - but if you are watering a lawn with city water - you get same water everyone else gets.
 
electricalist

electricalist

Senior Member
Location
dallas tx
48b76590b6b86b7739ccef6935d871f5.jpg
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How about this. Its above the fridge and half covered. Cabinet is 1' away.
 
electricalist

electricalist

Senior Member
Location
dallas tx
Never been scared of the dark and have a healthy fear of Chuck Norris but this house really bothers me, like walking into a room full of painters who just finished painting am I'm there to add a plug,,,,,and I'm the only person who understands what I'm telling them
 
electricalist

electricalist

Senior Member
Location
dallas tx
I don't really know. She said the poco gave her a daily breakdown of usage. Is this live minute by minute. I doubt it. Either way she wants the service upgraded and to be overhead. As well as the 6 panels brought up to standard.
Its a mess, there's little panels like you might see in a really old house. 6 or 8 space federal Pacific. . I'm having enough fun sorting out what's what and how to 're work it into a descent electrical system.
 
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