Electric heat not working, still drawing power?

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GerryB

Senior Member
I got a call today from a customer who said her heat was not working but her electric bill was $1600. The house is all electric heat. She said the same thing happened last year, no heat high bill. I've only been to her house once. (I didn't get to ask her what the problem was or how it was corrected last year. I'm going there tomorrow.) I am assuming she must mean "some" of the heat isn't working as it is pretty cold right now and she said not to come today she was working. My question is could a bad heater not put out heat but still run up the bill? Like I said if the house is all electric then probably the bill is what it is and some of the units or stats are bad, but she got me thinking when she said it happened last year also.
 

James L

Senior Member
Location
Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
Occupation
Electrician
I can think of a potential scenario, but a long shot.

At my son's school, each classroom has a 15kw electric furnace - one 5kw strip and one 10kw strip, and the units were installed in the mid-1980s. The plenum is open at the top, no ducting

In 3 classrooms at the same time, the furnaces were all running but not heating the room.

It's an old brick building, circa 1930s. Each room is 28'x22' with 12' ceilings

The issue was the same in each room, the 10kw strip went bad, so each one was running on a 5kw strip. Not near enough to heat the room, so they were running nonstop

A quick calculation 5kw running 24/7, if the rate were $0.14 per kw/hr would cost about $500 per month for each furnace.

If it was a big enough house, with only part of the strips running nonstop, it could happen


I would have to think the scenario at the school wouldn't happen again in a hundred years, but I guess anything's possible
 
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
I got a call today from a customer who said her heat was not working but her electric bill was $1600. The house is all electric heat. She said the same thing happened last year, no heat high bill. I've only been to her house once. (I didn't get to ask her what the problem was or how it was corrected last year. I'm going there tomorrow.) I am assuming she must mean "some" of the heat isn't working as it is pretty cold right now and she said not to come today she was working. My question is could a bad heater not put out heat but still run up the bill? Like I said if the house is all electric then probably the bill is what it is and some of the units or stats are bad, but she got me thinking when she said it happened last year also.
We see heating elements and a/c working at the same time often enough.
Another call, the blower service door was off and they were sucking the air from an unheated crawl space into the furnace. Trying to heat 40 degree air is a lot more expensive then 65 degree to 70.
 

big john

Senior Member
Location
Portland, ME
First things first, examine the actual metered kWh for her house. This may be a simple billing problem and has nothing to do with how much power she actually consumed, so make sure you don't get sidetracked.

Other than that the most obvious answer I can think of is it's a house with some ducting in an unfinished space that has come apart, so the furnace is running continuously to heat the outdoors.

A conservative estimate for a bill that high means she's drawing >60A 240V continuously for a month, and I'd be very hard pressed to believe in a residential electrical fault that would allow that. If she truly is consuming that amount of juice, you're looking for a pretty obvious load.
 
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
First things first, examine the actual metered kWh for her house. This may be a simple billing problem and has nothing to do with how much power she actually consumed, so make sure you don't get sidetracked.

Other than that the most obvious answer I can think of is it's a house with some ducting in an unfinished space that has come apart, so the furnace is running continuously to heat the outdoors.

A conservative estimate for a bill that high means she's drawing >60A 240V continuously for a month, and I'd be very hard pressed to believe in a residential electrical fault that would allow that. If she truly is consuming that amount of juice, you're looking for a pretty obvious load.
It is that simple. Put an amp clamp on and chase them.
 
I had a customer call with same problem, electric heaters not working. But a high bill.

What I found was a HIGH resistance short between L1 & L2, in the meter pan. The cables were touching each other in the meter pan and there was damaged were the two were touching causing a short. Check out the panel and meter pan.
 

GerryB

Senior Member
Nothing really wrong with her heat. She had one stat set at 60. Also,there was so much junk and clutter the heaters were all blocked. I tried to politely tell her she would get more heat if it could circulate better.
 

big john

Senior Member
Location
Portland, ME
Nothing really wrong with her heat. She had one stat set at 60. Also,there was so much junk and clutter the heaters were all blocked. I tried to politely tell her she would get more heat if it could circulate better.
So were the heaters literally running continuously trying to warm the house? What explains the $1,600?
 
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