Question about outrageous electric bill?!?

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i agree with checking the air conditioner. chances are the air handler coil is dirty and possibly clooged and with the house being that size, it would have to run 24 hours a day to even try to reach the desired temperature. most people overlook the regular maintainance of just cleaning the coil every 6 months or so, but its a big part in the normal operation of every air conditioner. if its dirty and clogged, it would be like trying to breathe while someone is holding your nose closed. you can simply clean the outside condenser unit by disconnecting the power at the outside disconnect and hosing down just the condenser coil only with a garden hose until you see no more dirt come out of it. then just let it dry for a few minutes before turning on the disconnect. the inside coil can be harder to clean though. sometimes it is in a hard to reach spot, or at least the coil is. but if you can reach it, you can probaly clean it at least a little bit. but all the coils should be cleaned not only on the outside where you can see the dirt, but also in the middle where algae and dust also collect and cannot be seen. but that will definately make a difference on the electric bill. i would also check the lights to see what kind of wattage they are putting out. if you can put your habd up next to the light bulbs and feel alot of heat, then they should probaly be replaced with lower wattage bulbs. that will also greatly impact the power bill. and if there is a water leak anywhere in the plumbing system, it could make the water heater run continously which would show up on the light bill too. or thier neighbor could be stealing electricity from them too. idk?
 
RUWired said:
$1000. a month bill would be 13.88 KWH at .10 cents. Thats over 50 amps. You should be able to run your amp meter over each branch and find the source or feel each breaker for warmth. Should be obvious.
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I was going to suggest that the place to start is with the amp meter.
 
The call I had that was similar to this ended with me learning that a water line had broken and flooded the basement. Come to find out the homeowner had run (4) old inefficent dehumidifers all month.

Make sure you ask lots of questions! Homeowners are dumb. (Sorry if any of you are homeowners)
 
steelersman said:
I've never seen them in the attic either. They are always run inside the walls or ceilings around here. At least they're accessible if something goes wrong if they're not in the slab.
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Every water pipe in the Dallas Fort Worth area is ran under the slab.
The main water line runs under the slab to the water heater and then goes back under the slab and comes up from under the slab to the area where it is needed. This is with copper and pex. ALL water lines, hot or cold are under the slab.
 
RUWired said:
$1000. a month bill would be 13.88 KWH at .10 cents. Thats over 50 amps. You should be able to run your amp meter over each branch and find the source or feel each breaker for warmth. Should be obvious.
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I must be doing something wrong. According to my math, if an electric bill were $1000 in 1 month, and if the rate were 10 cents/KWh (or .10) then that would mean that your usage would have been 10,000 KWh's. Actually just a little less because you have taxes and surcharges and the like that I'm not taking into account here, so I don't understand your math and how you came up with 13.88. Please explain...
 
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steelersman said:
I must be doing something wrong. According to my math, if an electric bill were $1000 in 1 month, and if the rate were 10 cents/KWh (or .10) then that would mean that your usage would have been 10,000 KWh's. Actually just a little less because you have taxes and surcharges and the like that I'm not taking into account here, so I don't understand your math and how you came up with 13.88. Please explain...
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I believe he meant that 10,000 kwh in a month is 13.88 kw, since 10,000/30/24 = 13.88.

Wayne
 
you can try turning off all the breakers an see if the meter is still turning, there may be a ground fault.
i had a similar electric bill and it was due to a defective heat pump. when the heat pump failed the heating system defaulted to the emergency electric heat thereby causing the meter to spin like at top.
 
unbalance load

unbalance load

I am looking for answer to question of unbalanced load giving higher utility bill. Single phase 240V has 95A on A and 25A on B. Would balance bring bill down or do they really measure KWh?

thanx

4.6 UNBALANCED LOADS
Every precaution shall be taken by the customer to maintain load balance on customer’s
single and three phase circuits. No load will be allowed on the Distributor’s service
conductors, which will create a seriously unbalanced condition.

http://www.cortn.org/EL-html/newweb/Rules and Regulations.pdf
 
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http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=104621&page=5

wyreman said:
I am looking for answer to question of unbalanced load giving higher utility bill. Single phase 240V has 95A on A and 25A on B. Would balance bring bill down or do they really measure KWh?
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There are small errors introduced by unbalanced loading, not enough to make more than a couple % difference. The size of these errors depends upon the voltage drop in the conductors feeding the meter; the smaller the voltage drop the smaller the error, no matter how unbalanced the load.

Residential meters do really measure KWh, and really measure the two different current flows on the two supply legs. However they usually only measure the 240V line-line voltage. To be 'Blondel compliant' they would need to measure the two separate line-neutral voltages.

Say, because of the unbalanced loading and system voltage drops that the 95A leg was seeing 110V and the 25A leg was seeing 120V. Assume 1.0 power factor; the meter correctly deals with power factor, so we won't worry about it for this example. The actual power being consumed is 110*95 + 120 * 25 = 13450W. But a conventional meter will measure 115 * 95 + 115 * 25 = 13800W.

Note that if both legs were getting a solid 120V, then the error would go away.

-Jon
 
amptech said:
I know radiant floor heat is available via wiring but all I've seen around here is hot water piping in the concrete slab or hot water piping on the wood subfloor covered with 2" of light weight concrete. I'm doing my new building's concrete floor with hot water radiant heat this fall. You can use a boiler or an electric or gas water heater with circulator pumps. It is pretty economical heat. I have installed electric heat mats for bathroom floors under tile but they are just for specific areas. We put hot water heat piping in a Dr.'s concrete driveway 2 years ago for snow/ice melt.
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I got involved with the radiant heat in a driveway for a Dr. also. I ask why he wanted it " I'm a surgeon and if it snows or ice's I need to get to the hospital". Walk away thinking what about the road that leads to the hospital?
 
ceb58 said:
I got involved with the radiant heat in a driveway for a Dr. also. I ask why he wanted it " I'm a surgeon and if it snows or ice's I need to get to the hospital". Walk away thinking what about the road that leads to the hospital?
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maybe the roads are kept plowed.

I know that when I eventually redo my driveway, I'll be installing the same thing. I'm tired of having to shovel it.
 
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