Troubleshooting high kilowatt usage

[spurlockda]

Lots of questions to answer but I’ll try. We are in the Phoenix basin so heating and air conditioning are not installed. At the end of the hangar row is the service cabinet containing individual meters for all of the hangars. The exterior lights are LED and they have a separate meter. The lights are off way more than on; probably 80%ish of the time they are off. His does not have an office or bathroom so no office equip or hot water heater. I think I recall the lights were installed in 2019. He only thing he has appliance-wise is one of those small dormroom size fridge. The only other electrical demand is the electric motor that opens/closes the hangar doors. It’s a thru and thru hangar so two doors.

I’m thinking about talking with the utility guys that are supposedly coming out to change out his meter and I’ll ask them if they have someone who can come out to help sleuth out the problem. So I think I’m going to try to get some current readings. The lights are important as you might imagine. The lumens and CRI have to be high because the hangar roof is 18’ to 2.0’ high. Plus when you drop those tiny dang aviation fasteners, finding them is really hard in low level light.

One thing I love about electrical work is that you’re never too old to learn new things. Does anyone have any experience with those whole house monitoring systems that are installed in the panel box in houses and stuff. One name I have read about is’Sense’? I’m thinking of installing one in my hangar because I’m sharing half of the hangar. I’m in a pass through hangar also.

News at 11!

 

[Barbqranch]

I would unplug the refrigerator and turn off all the lights and then see if the meter still turns. Maybe leave them off for 24 hours, and compare readings.

 

[spurlockda]

I put one of those usage devices that plugs into the outlet and the fridge plugs into that. I am going to turn everything off and use my clamp mete to see if I have any current flow, then I was going to check each line after turning its breaker on. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find one that is drawing current like a big dog.

I like those whole house monitors because they are sensing all branch circuits as well as the individual appliances. I want to learn more about those devices.

 

[gar]

210429-2024 EDT

spurlockda:

See my notes on energy measurement at:

BETATRONICS&reg, Electrical Measurement, Conservation, Energy measurement, Power measurement, Reduce Electric Bill, Charts, Graphs, Examples, Power Factor Correction, Residential, Homeowner, Book, Notes

Electrical Energy Measurement, Conservation, and Methods to Reduce Your Electric Bill.

beta-a2.com

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[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

Get a TED, hook it up, and monitor it for a day or a week or a month, whatever you want.

It shows PF as well, so much more useful than just a recording ammeter.

They make a 3 phase version as well.

You'll need a PC laptop, not a MAC, and you can download all the info.

You can adjust the readings to record every second, to once per minute, and everything in between.


I am not affiliated with the company at all. I've just found them very useful for power monitoring, like sizing off-grid power systems.

 

[spurlockda]

Thanks Gar, Seven-Delta-FortyOne, and everyone!

I’m hoping I’ll be able to add this to my training and succeed on my Journeyman exam!

Going back in to the analyses and troubleshooting. I’ll keep ya’ll posted!