Lost Electricity

[Steve IA]

xposted: alt.energy.homepower,alt.home.repair.misc.rural

Our average electricity usage for the last 6 years for December is 653 kwh with a range of 120. December 07 our usage was 682 kwh. This would not have been unusual except for the fact that, due to an ice storm, we had NO electricity for 6.5 days. Billing cycle per the bill was 31 days. I was expecting a bill 20% lower than the average bill and was dismayed when it was actually higher. So far this month of January, we are using at the about average rate (22kwh/day) as we did in December, the only odd thing is that we had NO power of nearly a week in December. I've spoken with a few neighbors who also lost power and 'come to think of it' their bill went up or didn't go down as much as they would have expected for a 20-25% time of no usage. I ask the REC and they said we 'just used more'. They also tried to blame 'recovery usage'. I'm not buying it. They claim they didn't estimate the bill and when I received the bill I immediately checked and the meter reading seemed in line with normal. I'm talking KWH her not $$ which can be affected by rate changes, surcharge and taxes etc.

Facts: During the ice storm we used a gas generator intermittently during the daylight to power the freezer, tv, occasional PC and a few lights . We relied 100% on wood heat, never falling below 60F. For the entire billing period we did nothing that we can think of unusual that would increase the consumption over the previous December. No extra Xmas lights, no 'recovery' usage after power restoration other than 1 refrigerator . Normal is LP furnace supplemented by high efficiency wood fireplace. Gas water heater and stove. Elec clothes dryer.

1 powered outbuilding. We live ¼ mile away from nearest neighbor so no chance of somebody running an extension cord and stealing from us.

After receiving the bill, I shut the power off below the meter and it quit turning. We've done some other testing by turning off house circuit breakers and watching the meter but have isolated nothing unusual yet. With all house breakers off the meter stops. I have purchase a Kill-a -Watt and have begun looking for the energy thief. I've found nothing yet, although the KAW is fun and interesting.

Where would the electricity go? When reconnecting the lines, can a 'surge' spin the meter forward? Previously we had 2 lines coming into our neighborhood, both lines fell but only 1 was reconnected to restore power. Can this have any bearing? What am I missing? What other testing can I do? Your thoughts and comments appreciated.

Steve IA

[franz fripplfrappl]

Check your utility bill to see if it is an estimate or direct read. Some utilities try to save money by not reading meters every month. Instead they take an average. Any differences are made up in subsequent billing cycles.

Have you called the utility to find out what they think?

[Red Green]

Steve IA wrote in news: [e-mail]:

In VT, you call and they will lend you one for a month for free. They even provide a return box all labeled and postpaid. Requires credit card so they can charge you if you fail to return.

[Bernardo Gui]

It can be frustrating for a poster to write a detailed description of a situation, only to read a response from somebody who obviously didn't read it.

Here is the part of the OP's posting that should have prevented your question:

I suspect that some utilities have lax procedures that benefit them, but are only detectable during situations like this.

Bernardo

[Ann]

See what your next bill is. My REC actually reads only every other month; they estimate the other "readings". I started using compact fluorescent bulbs (and otherwise reduced usage) a couple years ago and they're still estimating the interim months about 25% high.

Also, readings aren't necessarily the exact meter reading. Where I previously lived, the meter reader handset showed estimated readings for customer accounts. If the estimated reading wasn't too far off, the meter reader accepted the estimate rather than keying in the actual reading.

[Jack Hunt]

Re-read the orig>> I ask the REC and they said we

[Kevin Ricks]

I know you said they did not estimate this bill, but what about the previous month(s)? Did the outage span over 2 billing cycles? Kevin

[David L. Martel]

Steve,

You provide a lot of good information. You state that your 12/07 usage was 682 kwh (27.3 kwh/day for 25 days). You tell us that the power was out for 20% of that billing cycle. You tell us that in past Decembers you have used from 533 (17.2/day for 31 days)to 773 (24.9/day) kwh. I don't see much theft here, could easily be normal variation.

Dave M.

[dpb]

Very good post to convert to a range of previous usages on a daily basis which shows only a 10% roughly higher than previous rate (27.3/24.7 ~

1.1). I'd not ascribe it to anything but normal variation based on that, especially if there's on indication of stray current when loads are off as indicated.

Being a REC, it's probably a neighbor who does the meter-reading; they could probably tell you if they had made an estimate the previous month or not. We're small enough we still hand-read; a transcription error a month ago might have been smaller than normal too, which you just made up for this past month.

--

[Dimitrios Paskoudniakis]

Another key parameter you need to share but did not is the average temperature over the billing period. My utility company provides this, as well as the number of KWh and days.

Is it possible the avergage temperature was colder than the same month one year earlier? This could explain a higher usage even with 6 days of no usage.

[Steve IA]

Dave, Thanks for the return. I guess I'm not following your calculations. I will give you actuals and maybe I can see where you're coming from Dec 07 - 682 kwh on a 31 day billing cycle = 22 kwh/day Previous 6 years Dec: assuming 31 day billing cycle for all

02- 611 =19.7kwh/day 03- 702 =22.6 04 -663 =21.4 05 -676 =21.8 06 -581 =18.7 07 -682 =22

avg = 653 range = 702-581 = 121

I agree that it is well within normal variation if I had used elec every of the 31 days, but I only used for 80% of the time. Steve

[Steve IA]

Can two extension cords, plugged together and covered with ice and snow cause a direct short without breaking the circuit breaker?

Thanks Steve

[Steve IA]

It was colder, but very little of our usage goes to heating the house. Certainly not cold enough to mitigate the days of 0 use. We installed a new fireplace in November and our LP usage has dropped so much that I chased the tank wagon away the other day as we had used less than 150 gals between September and jan 10th.

[John Grabowski]

Steve is it possible that as a result of the ice storm and the holidays that you spent more time at home than you normally would on an average work day. I'm thinking that your living patterns during that time period were such that your power consumption may have been higher. Perhaps you are the type of people where your lifestyle has you going out a lot, but because of the weather you were forced to stay at home. I don't know about where you live, but my electric rate is higher during the week days and during daylight hours than at night. Maybe you were home more during peak periods.

[Steve IA]

We are retired and away from family and this hasn't changed in 3 years. We did no entertaining, extra lighting or cooking beyond normal December stuff. Thanks.

Steve

[Terry]

If you think the cords are suspect you can use your kill-a-watt meter. Check the readings at each end of the cord. If it is leaking at the junction or at a bad spot in the insulation you might be able to measure it with the meter.

[dpb]

Previous max was 22.7; this was 22*0.8=17.6 --> 22.7/17.6 = 1.3 instead of previous 1.1. I didn't check the numbers. Still, don't have the comparative degree-days to see how much that might be a factor.

I'd still say it's unlikely to be anything except an anomaly in usage combined w/ billing cycle. Could possibly have had some leakage during the outage if there were some damage somewhere on your feed...I'd only worry much if it is still abnormal for another month.

--

[Doug Miller]

Yep. The breaker won't trip unless the current exceeds the breaker's rated capacity. A continuous 1A leak won't even come close to tripping a 15A breaker, but costs you 1A * 120V * 24 hrs = almost 3 kwh per day.

[---MIKE---]

Many years ago my electric bill was about three times usual. Come to find out that my septic pump was running continuously because of a stuck switch. The pump is in an underground tank so it's running was not audible.

---MIKE---

[Kevin Ricks]

Yes you can have wasted power, more so if the water is dirty*, but it seems to me if it was a significant short then there would have been a significant amount of heat generated at that connection. A 15A circuit can put out up to 1800 Watts before the circuit breaker trips. Even a 7 Watt bulb would have melted the snow and dried the connection.

*I recently had a sewer pump that had a dead short to ground. I measured about 0.25A or 30 Watts loss going into ground when the pump was on. (The PO disconnected the ground wire so the pump would continue to operate without blowing the breaker!)

If your cord was on GFCI then that should have tripped.

Kevin