If evrything is correctly wired, yes.

But the in example I originally gave the street lights were siamesed with the consumer's supply.

So if the lines were joined, did that push to much power into the house>> Was this problem found because of high bills??

 

I can only provide you with my consumption in comparison.
Typical nighttime usage is 0.5 kWh.
That means I am drawing about 4A for all the computers, clocks, lights (which is none at night), fridge, bar fridge, freezer and standby phantom power.
With normal household activity such as cooking, washing and drying I am averaging 20 kWh. At peak power usage I am drawing no more that 20A.

 

So if the lines were joined, did that push to much power into the house>> Was this problem found because of high bills??

Yes, the user eventually successfully challenged sky high bills, against fierce opposition from the electricity supplier.

No, electricity was not pushed into the house.

Why don't you just get your electricain to check all connections to that pole.
He will know what I mean.

 

Yes, the user eventually successfully challenged sky high bills, against fierce opposition from the electricity supplier.

No, electricity was not pushed into the house.

Why don't you just get your electricain to check all connections to that pole.
He will know what I mean.

I will call them in the a.m. STAT.

So over this!!!

 

I can only provide you with my consumption in comparison.
Typical nighttime usage is 0.5 kWh.
That means I am drawing about 4A for all the computers, clocks, lights (which is none at night), fridge, bar fridge, freezer and standby phantom power.
With normal household activity such as cooking, washing and drying I am averaging 20 kWh. At peak power usage I am drawing no more that 20A.

So our 50 ++ kilowatts for 12 hours is rather extravagant..yes?

 

I will write out a few of the kilos:
January 2004 - 985 kw January 2014 - 1816 kw Jan 2015 - 2023 kw
Feb - 1288 kw Feb - 2326 kw Feb - 1784 kw
March - 1043 kw March - 2359 kw March - 1935 kw
April - 1033 kw April - 1650 kw April - 1501 kw
May - 836 kw May - 1710 kw May - 1668 kw
June - 758 kw June - 2419 kw June -
July - 893 kw July - 2434 kw
August - 1201 kw August - 2510 kw
Sept - 1473 kw Sept - 2478 kw
Oct - 1197 kw Oct - 2114 kw
Nov - 1168 kw Nov - 1778 kw
Dec - 870 kw Dec - 1836 kw

.06 cents per .09 cents .09 cents

Are you sure these are in kw and not kWh? There is a huge difference.

Assuming you are talking about kWh, the numbers seem extremely high, even for your Jan 2004 levels. I have a 3000+ sq home with a waterbed and several computers that are on continuously and my electrical usage is almost never over 600 kWh per month.

 

Alright if anyone is still with me...here are the results for the meter after shutting down the circuit to the garage (double 60's) to check for a ground...

10 a.m. - 10 a.m. = 53 kilowatts - breaker shut off!

10 a.m. - 10 a.m. = 43 kilowatts - breaker back on....................??????????

Thinking there is no ground in the line. What do you all think?


now, I had asked but it may have been missed, can a ground still draw energy if there is nothing 'on' on that line? Or if the circuit is shut off...I assume no to the second.

The troubleman that checked and changed the connections to the house, did so on the house, above the breaker and on the pole to the house. He DID NOT check anything on the pole that has the transformer....COULD there be a wire screw up there that could affect this???

Here is my theory::

We have normal stuff, even maybe a little less than normal stuff running in the house.
I feel like even though they feel they are providing the correct amount of power to the house, it is too much
SO, when I turn on my 60 watt bulb or my dryer or what ever, it is drawing more power than necessary, causing in essence a doubling affect on the meter.....just not too much power, so that I am melting my laptop, but more than we need.

Responses Please -

53 kilowatts or 53 kilowatt-hours? The first is POWER and the second is ENERGY. They are NOT the same!

What do you mean by "there is no ground in the line"?

No, your appliances are not being "tricked" into consuming twice their normal power.

There is no way to make sense of the data until you run a proper baseline. You need to turn off ALL of your breakers for at least several hours, preferably overnight, and see if your meter records ANY usage during that time.

 

So our 50 ++ kilowatts for 12 hours is rather extravagant..yes?

Again, kilowatts is NOT energy.

You are saying that 53 kWh was consumed over 24 hours (10 am - 10 am). That maps to about 1600 kWh/mo, which is in line with what your bills are showing.

If you are in southern Minnesota the weather should be just fine for you to shut off ALL the breakers overnight and see what it shows.

 

If overnight is too long for you, and you're worried about fridge/freezer stuff thawing, at least turn EVERYTHING (including fridge/freezer) off for a few hours, checking the meter at the start and end of the off period. If there's any kWh registered in that time then you KNOW you have a problem with the wiring.

 

Are you sure these are in kw and not kWh? There is a huge difference.

Assuming you are talking about kWh, the numbers seem extremely high, even for your Jan 2004 levels. I have a 3000+ sq home with a waterbed and several computers that are on continuously and my electrical usage is almost never over 600 kWh per month.

What is your cost per kWh? Ours is at about .09 cents..

The numbers are marked on my bill 'kWh' - my uneducated mistake...coming up with an abbreviation that means something else entirely!
My current bill shows 1668 kWh for 31 days. Costing$$206.85 This is actually a low bill for us comparably with some reaching $385 this year.....

What I find intriguing is that they told me 'they would usually flag the home to be investigated for illegal activity' due to the extremely high bills for a residence......but they didn't, why ? Because they are the problem and finding the mistake would be to admit they messed up!!!

 

53 kilowatts or 53 kilowatt-hours? The first is POWER and the second is ENERGY. They are NOT the same!

1) What do you mean by "there is no ground in the line"?

2) No, your appliances are not being "tricked" into consuming twice their normal power.

There is no way to make sense of the data until you run a proper baseline. You need to turn off ALL of your breakers for at least several hours, preferably overnight, and see if your meter records ANY usage during that time.

1)
It was suggested that if we shut off the 60 amp breaker to the garage we might see a significant change in the meter reading, if there was a chewed/defective wire underground..grounding = drawing constant power and sending it into the ground (as was explained to me)

This suggested, because the meter monitoring report was showing a parallel draw on both channels (again explained that it would be coming from a larger amp breaker...A/C or the like) the garage being on a 60 amp and the only buried line we thought to give this a whirl...also explained that it may be grounding but not tripping the breaker because it is a higher amp??

The meter showed more kWh over the 24 hours that the 60 amp breaker was off so I deduced that it must not be the issue...

2)
Thank you for letting me know about the idea of using 'twice the power' it was just another uneducated theory I was holding onto.

3)
If I shut off ALL the breakers, does that include 'the main' ?

Thank you-

 

Again, kilowatts is NOT energy.

You are saying that 53 kWh was consumed over 24 hours (10 am - 10 am). That maps to about 1600 kWh/mo, which is in line with what your bills are showing.

If you are in southern Minnesota the weather should be just fine for you to shut off ALL the breakers overnight and see what it shows.

Yes, it is in line with the bill, that is the problem though - when we add up all that is running in the house, it comes out about 1/2 of this...again, we have checked all the breakers ( 3x's) and individual appliances that plug in for misbehaving - they all have checked out. We can't account for the kWh's.

I will shut the house down tonight! Mid 50's - perfect sleeping weather!

 

Yes, it is in line with the bill, that is the problem though - when we add up all that is running in the house, it comes out about 1/2 of this...again, we have checked all the breakers ( 3x's) and individual appliances that plug in for misbehaving - they all have checked out. We can't account for the kWh's.

I will shut the house down tonight! Mid 50's - perfect sleeping weather!

Good. That will be the first really solid piece of data that we can use as a starting point.

 

Good. That will be the first really solid piece of data that we can use as a starting point.

Do I shut off the individual breakers or the main only or as well??

 

If in doubt, turn them all off. Some boxes have different buss structures.

 

Do I shut off the individual breakers or the main only or as well??

Turn them all off. That way you KNOW that everything is supposed to be off. If you leave everything off overnight (call it 10 hours) then if your meter has 1 kWh resolution, you should detect any load that averages anything over 100 W (or less than 1 A).

 

Turn them all off. That way you KNOW that everything is supposed to be off. If you leave everything off overnight (call it 10 hours) then if your meter has 1 kWh resolution, you should detect any load that averages anything over 100 W (or less than 1 A).

Ok - I have shut the house down...from about midnight to 5:30 in the a.m.

The meter did not go blank BUT, the meter reading did not change at all. Not even one number different.

At this time our bills for the last few months have been in the $220 - $250 range, 1690 and 1781 kwh's. These are up from last year this time, as is the trend seen on our spread sheet for the last 10 years. Next months bill could be a whopper, last year it was up in the $350 range for the June/July bills.

We are planning on contacting the Attorney General next. We have been told by the Public Utilities Commission that there is nothing else they feel the can ask the Electric company to do to help resolve our (unknown) issue. So we are moving onto the next step.

 

Why are you going to contact the Attorney General? Your measurement indicates strongly that the increased energy usage is real and that it is in your house. The electric company is only charging you for electrical energy you use in your house. What more do you expect? If you leave your car running all night are you going to go to the Attorney General and claim that the gas station is overcharging you for gas?

This is actually good news, because it means that whatever is happening is happening in YOUR house and that, therefore, YOU have control over it. Now it is time to knuckle down and start troubleshooting it. You might contact a qualified electrician to track down the problem, but that will cost you. Or you can try to do it yourself by applying the steps that I and others have been recommending. Or you could mix the two and try to systematically eliminate some circuits from consideration yourself so that the electrician you are paying can focus on the remaining circuits.

As others have indicated, it is very possible that you have something in your house that, as it ages, is drawing more power. This could be something direct, such as a compressor in an air conditioning system, or it could be indirect, such as duct work, filters, coils, and other things that have become plugged and are causing progressively work efficiency of your heating and/or air conditioning systems.

 

the meter reading did not change at all. Not even one number different.

So at least you know you're not paying for a neighbour hijacking your supply during the night. If it were me I'd repeat the shut-everything-down test for 10 hrs or so during daylight hours, despite the inconvenience. Send the family on holiday while you do it .

 

Since it appears that you have established that the errant load is actually in your premises, I would suggest that you get a competent electrician to disconnect each load and perform an megger insulation test on the cabling(particularly the underground one). You may have a faulty cable on one or more circuits allowing current to track between active and neutral( I assume you have RCD(or GCFI as you call them). They should of course trip breakers if a leakage path from active to earth is present in you wiring.