electric bill

[topend]

I've been asked to investigate a near tripling of a customer's electric bill. Any suggestions as to what could cause this?
thanks.

 

[gadfly56]

I've been asked to investigate a near tripling of a customer's electric bill. Any suggestions as to what could cause this?
thanks.

They started growing pot?

 

[mjf]

sump pump on nonstop?

I'd try to narrow it down.

turn off the main and see if the meter is still spinning.

shut off breaker by breaker to see if 1 circuit is drawing a lot more than it "should"

Maybe they have an old freezer and the compressor is running non-stop?

Has POCO been there to verify meter is operating properly.

 

[cadpoint]

Any recent construction in the house, any construction or electrical service or other services outside change,
did they move some stuff around in the house?

A stuck well pump. Water heater element, Open short on any motor in house.

With Amp meter average receptacle should be low, anything over 8 - 10 amps in panel, I'd check out.

Second checkie, checkie
With a checked ground and receptacle checked out - with a good extension check for short to oven metal,
all drain pipes, refrigerator, D/W, W/D.

 

[JoeTroubleShoot]

Maybe a loose connection on the load side of the meter trough or main..

That first reply made me lol for real. I wouldn't put it past someone growing weed to complain about a bill going up from doing something illegal.

 

[qcroanoke]

I go along with MJF and Cadpoint.
Ask a lot of questions.
when did this start?
hot water too hot? or runs out quick?
etc., etc., etc.

 

[kbsparky]

Did the POCO recently change the meter (to a "smart" one)??

I've seen cases where an old meter was a bit sluggish, and when they replaced it, the new one operated properly --- doubling the bill overnight.

 

[Jraef]

sump pump on nonstop?

I'd try to narrow it down.

turn off the main and see if the meter is still spinning.

shut off breaker by breaker to see if 1 circuit is drawing a lot more than it "should"

...

And when you see that something is still drawing power when everything is supposed to be off, look for that buried extension cord going into the neighbor's garage to grow HIS pot plants...

 

[ptonsparky]

Back up electric heat on instead of ht pump. Cold air return open to unheated crawl space...AHU blower door was off.

 

[augie47]

And when you see that something is still drawing power when everything is supposed to be off, look for that buried extension cord going into the neighbor's garage to grow HIS pot plants...

One local POCO says that in years of investigating such claims, less than 1% were defective meters.
The most common culprits they have found , excluding the human factor, were water heaters and space heating problems.

 

[ptonsparky]

Loose connections would not be on my list. The connection would burn away along with the house long before it would use that amount off power. The power lost in a loose connection is limited by the load of the circuit. Wasted energy, yes, but not to the point of tripling the billing.

 

[topend]

thanks everybody. especially gadfly. hehe.

 

[arion]

has anyone checked the neutral that sounds a lot like a bad neutral causing the load to bridge the lines to complete the circuit and also using more power which is simply being wasted as heat in the 120V loads

 

[Sierrasparky]

has anyone checked the neutral that sounds a lot like a bad neutral causing the load to bridge the lines to complete the circuit and also using more power which is simply being wasted as heat in the 120V loads

Very unlikely

One local POCO says that in years of investigating such claims, less than 1% were defective meters.
The most common culprits they have found , excluding the human factor, were water heaters and space heating problems.

I'd say water heater or it's been colder than normal and the someone is running the heat.

 

[GoldDigger]

Have heard of a guy who miswired the motor of a vehicle lift and there was a constant ground fault through concrete foundation. It was a good 30A constant drain on a 40A breaker and his next month's bill was a real eye opener.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

[gar]

131220-0844 EST

Instrumentation and ask questions.

What was the monthly kWh usage before the noticed increase?
What is monthly usage after the increase?

Unless usage was very low previously, then a normal refrigerator or freezer running continuously is not the cause. Think about this: a modern high efficiency refrigerator has an average power consumption of about 70 W and a duty cycle of probably more than 50%. So worst case for an open door would be an increase of about 70 W.

Electric water heaters are a different story. A tank type might be 6 kW, and when no water is being drawn the duty cycle might be 5% or less, about 300 W average for 5%. 300 W average would already be a large part of base load. Anything to increase this base duty cycle could have a big impact.

I would monitor the whole house usage at the main panel with a TED 1000 system and its data collection software. The 1000 is not available anymore, except on the used market. In the absence of a 1000, then use a 5000. Neither of these have an absolute accuracy as good as a smart meter or a well functioning spinning disk meter, but for the magnitude of your problem the TED accuracy is not a concern. TED monitoring will allow you to see what happens thru a day.

Without using some sort of instrumentation to measure power or current you are just guessing.

.

 

[kwired]

Back up electric heat on instead of ht pump. Cold air return open to unheated crawl space...AHU blower door was off.

I've seen heat pump trying to cool the space and the resistance heat was running at same time all because the guy that connected it either didn't know what he was doing or made a mistake.It is kind of counter productive.

One local POCO says that in years of investigating such claims, less than 1% were defective meters.
The most common culprits they have found , excluding the human factor, were water heaters and space heating problems.

And as far as mechanical meters go, if they are out of calibration, it is usually in the customers favor - meaning it records less than actual consumption.

 

[7EA]

As mentioned earlier, I've seen a well pump cause this problem. If there is a pressure tank with a ruptured bladder, the pump will cycle on pretty much every time there is a call for water, and will run continously while the water is running.

 

[kwired]

As mentioned earlier, I've seen a well pump cause this problem. If there is a pressure tank with a ruptured bladder, the pump will cycle on pretty much every time there is a call for water, and will run continously while the water is running.

Yes and no, depends on other factors. As long as there is still air in the tank the system still has expansion capacity, the less air there is the more frequently it will cycle the pump as there is less expansion capacity. If you are using water at a high enough volume you have nearly constant run time anyway. Short cycling is likely going to be noticed more by pump problems than by the energy bill. Where I have seen the well run up the energy bill is when it doesn't shut off at all for some reason, like a malfunctioning pressure switch, they usually fail open but sometimes fail closed.

 

[suemarkp]

Check any buried circuit or feeder. Eventually, you'll find it when steam comes out of the ground, but at first the leak will be too small and just show up on the electric bill.