My water heater is on a cheaper off-peak meter - I assumed everyone did that.

No such thing, here in Canada anyway.
Max.

 

As others have suggested, get you baseline data first. Shut off everything at the break panel -- everything -- and leave it off all night (or, if possible, for an entire 24 hours) and see if your meter shows any usage during that time at all (and, if so, how much). That's your starting point. Until you have done that, you are going to continue chasing your tail.

 

My water heater is on a cheaper off-peak meter - I assumed everyone did that.

Don't even know what that is, though I can guess.

In almost all places in the U.S., residential consumers have a single meter. Don't know where the TS is from.

 

Please keep brainstorming!! I need and answer...what about outside??? The transformer? the wires, the ??? Surges? Can someone highjack power from a pole???

Your meter is on your dwelling; any power tapped from the pole is "free".

Someone could be stealing power after your meter...

 

My water heater is on a cheaper off-peak meter - I assumed everyone did that.

We don't have peak/off-peak in my area... Don't know where the OP lives, but we have what is considered inexpensive electricity and I think we're paying 0.11/KWH.

 

Post your electric bill. You can blank out the name, address and account number, but I would like to see your kWh and rates...

 

Don't even know what that is, though I can guess.

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In places like the UK, with the installation of storage heating units in various rooms, they would switch on in off peak Hrs during the night, this would store the heat and release it during the day when they would power off, a separate meter would record this lower Kw rate.
Max.

 

That's just what I suspected. A similar thing is done in many commercial installations in the U.S.

I think the problem with getting it down into the residential market is that the places that benefit the most would be places that are already heavily built up and, therefore, already have the existing single meter in a huge fraction of the homes. As existing meters are replaced with new remote sense meters, we will probably see tiered and peak/off-peak metering come into play more and more.

 

Switch off all of your circuit breakers at the panel and then switch them on one by one noting how much power you're consuming on the utility meter. If you can narrow to a circuit, check each appliance on it using a watt meter. The power company may have one you can borrow. I did that to check power consumption on an old refrigerator. Most people don't clean the radiators on their refrigerators (me included), but that can increase consumption (marginally).

Ok, so 1) turn all breakers off
2) turn on one at a time - FOR how long? Would it make sense to try an hour each in order to catch cycles...i.e. water recharging etc. Should I run the appliance on that circuit during the hour i.e. washer or wash machine, dryer?
3) run outside at each hour and record the kilowatt reading on the meter on the house.


We have done breaker line checks with the electrician watching his handheld at the breaker box on each line in order to check things we can't manually plug into the meter from the library that shows kilowatts being used. Found nothing unusual or 'high'

You are looking in the wrong place, appliance might be ok but there needs to be somewhere something else that hogs the current.
You might want to look on what is the line voltage at night compared to voltage during the day. Do the lights (incandescent ones) get really bright?

The monitoring of the breakers feels incomplete. When the electrician stands there and hooks up each line and watches for a short time..5 inutes, then moves on. The monitor we put on the furnace line and the dryer line for a couple days felt more complete....am waiting for electrician to come back and do ALL the breakers for a couple days each.

I just feel like getting snipits of reading whether outside on the meter or inside on the breaker/lines is not allowing for real data to be revealing a problem.....I am frustrated beyond belief...I feel like there is a conspiracy...!

 

We have only a gas furnace with an electric fan that circulates the air - the fan turns on and off throughout the day and night, whether or not the furnace or a/c is actively sending cold or heat.

 

That's just what I suspected. A similar thing is done in many commercial installations in the U.S.

I think the problem with getting it down into the residential market is that the places that benefit the most would be places that are already heavily built up and, therefore, already have the existing single meter in a huge fraction of the homes. As existing meters are replaced with new remote sense meters, we will probably see tiered and peak/off-peak metering come into play more and more.

Our meter is digital and I believe they do estimated billing. Could this lead to ever increasing numbers???
They have the power saver switch, that they install upon request..it is to automatically turn off your a/c during the hottest part of the day I believe. We do not have this installed.

 

I just feel like getting snipits of reading whether outside on the meter or inside on the breaker/lines is not allowing for real data to be revealing a problem.....I am frustrated beyond belief...I feel like there is a conspiracy...!

Which is why you need to establish a baseline and first see if the meter continues to run even if ALL of the breakers are shut off for an extended period of time, such as overnight or, if possible, a full day.

Either the electricity is flowing through your breakers or it is not. If it is not -- if there is some path that is allowing current to flow through the meter without going through your breaker panel, then you can monitor the currents in your breaker branch circuits till the cows come home and you will never find it.

 

Our meter is digital and I believe they do estimated billing. Could this lead to ever increasing numbers???
They have the power saver switch, that they install upon request..it is to automatically turn off your a/c during the hottest part of the day I believe. We do not have this installed.

Can YOU see what the meter is reading?

Does it show just accumulated usage or does it give at least some indication of immediate energy consumption (the old mechanical meters here had a wheel that rotated at a rate proportional to the present average power draw).

 

You are looking in the wrong place, appliance might be ok but there needs to be somewhere something else that hogs the current.
You might want to look on what is the line voltage at night compared to voltage during the day. Do the lights (incandescent ones) get really bright?

Interesting - the dimming happens in the evening, noticeably the 5 mini bulb chandelier on a dimmer switch. Bulbs around the house when turned on frequently turn on unnaturally bright than burn out.

I have the readouts from the monitoring the power company did on the outside meter. It covered several days...I can try to attach it to a message. It shows the call for power and the opposing giving of power...it looks like a heart monitoring with a guy have crazy fast heart beats...is this where we could see changes from day to night VOLTAGE?

 

Can YOU see what the meter is reading?

Does it show just accumulated usage or does it give at least some indication of immediate energy consumption (the old mechanical meters here had a wheel that rotated at a rate proportional to the present average power draw).

It has three or 5 digital bars that show up cumulatively across the top then start over and over, then a kilo number pops up for a second or so then disappears, then pops back with the new usage number. This is what I recorded every hour on the hour for 12 hours. this is when I saw the spikes of kilo's at strange times, not correlating to activities in the house....

 

It has three or 5 digital bars that show up cumulatively across the top then start over and over, then a kilo number pops up for a second or so then disappears, then pops back with the new usage number. This is what I recorded every hour on the hour for 12 hours. this is when I saw the spikes of kilo's at strange times, not correlating to activities in the house....

So do a similar test but with all of the breakers off. Then do a test with half of the breakers on followed by a test with the other half of them on. This will narrow things down considerable. It is either something before your panel or after and, if after, you will know which half of the breaker panel is the culprit. Once you know that, then repeat the test again with only half of the offending breakers on followed by a test with the other half. This is called a Binary Search and you will be able to narrow it down to a specific breaker (assuming it is being caused by something on a single breaker) after just a few cycles of this testing approach.

 

As others have suggested, get you baseline data first. Shut off everything at the break panel -- everything -- and leave it off all night (or, if possible, for an entire 24 hours) and see if your meter shows any usage during that time at all (and, if so, how much). That's your starting point. Until you have done that, you are going to continue chasing your tail.

Alright, I will do it! I will do this, I need to wait a couple of days,,..temps dipping into the 30's tonight and tomorrow...I have little ones in the house!

 

Which is why you need to establish a baseline and first see if the meter continues to run even if ALL of the breakers are shut off for an extended period of time, such as overnight or, if possible, a full day.

Either the electricity is flowing through your breakers or it is not. If it is not -- if there is some path that is allowing current to flow through the meter without going through your breaker panel, then you can monitor the currents in your breaker branch circuits till the cows come home and you will never find it.

Got it, I will try this...can't wait!! Oh you have no idea! The thought of figuring this out.....this has become a part time job.

 

Got it, I will try this...can't wait!! Oh you have no idea! The thought of figuring this out.....this has become a part time job.

Another thing you could do is check your monthly KWH usage from a time you thought it was "normal" and then look for when it started trending upward.

 

39 posts and you have not yet stated the electricity usage in electric units not money terms.

This is important to figure out the amount in kilowatt-hours you use.

Now cases like you describe happen from time to time and full invesigation shows something else is wired to your supply.
I can't instantly lay my hands on the reports but there have been cases of the street lights or road signs being wired in to an unsuspecting customer's circuit.
I'm not saing this has happened in your case but
You say that the pole was replaced just when the increase started. Is anything else fed from that pole. (make a real check not just a thought one).

Let us have the results.