Why does electric use increase in winter

[OhioBurner©]

Married? Wife sneaking electric heat while your out? lol
My rates have usually been much higher in the winter, presumably due to space heaters.
After my X moved out, my consumption has dropped substantially, and little difference between summer and winter. We'll say an average of 500kWh/mo during warmer half of year and 650 cooler half. I assume from additional lighting and interior electronics usage, plus extra load on electric water heater and fans moving stove heat around the house. While my X was here and used space heaters during the coldest months those months would double or triple in usage!

 

[Ashful]

I thought some how you got your hands on my neighbor comparison. It looks exactly the same!!

You know... so many people (including one of my neighbors) have told me the same thing, that I suspect they're sending the same email to everyone. Just take your last bill and say the neighbors were 32% less.

 

[fbelec]

just thought of one other that can easily be forgotten bathroom in floor heating

 

[Highbeam]

I own an effergy whole house monitor. I installed it many years ago after I swapped to a new Siemens panel. It was cheap, easy to install, and very educational.

I noticed a base load of 150 watts when everything was turned off so I bought a clamp on ammeter from Home Depot for like 30$. Open the panel and put the clamp around each wire as it heads into the breaker looking for the leak. I found lots of little consumers like gfci plugs but the electric oven had a constant 58 watt draw for nothing but a clock! I never got it to zero since the remaining 100 Watts is low enough for me to ignore and no easy fixes.

This is what you do. Investigate each circuit to find a leaker.

First though you need to check your bill to find the meter number and verify that the number matches your meter.

I use a hot tub too, especially in the winter, it is responsible for about half of my bill! Around 2$ per day in winter.

 

[Brian26]

Noticed the oil fired peaking power plant in New Haven was running full bore this morning. They only start it when there is an extremely high demand for power. Just checked the ISO New England website and the demand and prices are crazy with this cold here in New England. Prices are around $200 a MWH (1000KWH) wholesale.

It looks like they also scale back all the natural gas plants and are using mostly oil fired plants right now. I am guessing because of strained natural gas lines with the brutal cold here.

https://www.iso-ne.com/isoexpress/

 

[peakbagger]

Yup, ISO predicted this choice a few years back, gas to keep folks warm or gas to keep the power plants running. Users with interuptible power contracts have already gotten the call to switch to alternative fuels and anyone with an oil, wood or coal fired power plant is making a bundle.

 

[saewoody]

Just curious what you pay for power per kwh in Idaho? Some rough math off your chart would be a power bill here that I wouldnt even want to think about with the highest electricity prices in the lower 48. You would be looking at a 4-5K power bill a year.

Gotta love CT!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dobish]

This is mine over the last 2 years. What i noticed was that we have an electric fireplace in our room that didn't get turned on this past december. You can see the difference! We are roughly 1960sqft, with basically 5 people home all day long. 3-4 loads of laundry per week, 1-2 dishwasher loads, electric water heater, 1/2 the house is LED lights, a fridge and a separate freezer.

 

[Doc C]

I was sick for a few days and sleeping on the couch. One thing I noticed was both of our laptops would turn on probably once an hour during the night. The fans would come on and you could hear the disc drives running for awhile. I know this is not my problem but I have a feeling it's adding to the bill some.

I have been tracking and testing and monitoring EVERYTHING in the house and I am not finding any major draws. I am wondering if it is either an intermittent draw or its an error on the power company side.

 

[Dobish]

you said it was a digital meter right?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/business/13meter.html

 

[Doc C]

 

[Doc C]

I am on track to use approximately 2076 KWH this month! I used 1936 KWH last month.

This is making no sense at all! This month I have intentionally used less electric then last month. We have lived in an almost dark house. And we have not used any fans. I even have the fan between my floors for heat movement turned off and just letting the heat from the wood stove naturally go upstairs.

Also I unplugged everything in the shop, all my power tool chargers, everything. Except the deep freezer.

Nothing I am checking is showing enough electric use to matter. By my calculations I should be running less then 1000 KWH

What the heck!

 

[maple1]

How are you checking? Have you checked all your circuits with a meter? No matter where it's going you should be able to find it with a proper multi meter and techniques.

 

[maple1]

If you cant find it get an electrician in, as i think also suggested earlier.

 

[Doc C]

If you cant find it get an electrician in, as i think also suggested earlier.

I already did. He thinks it's something intermittent as well. Luckily he's a friend of mine so he only charged me an hour but he could not find anything either.

 

[Doc C]

How are you checking? Have you checked all your circuits with a meter? No matter where it's going you should be able to find it with a proper multi meter and techniques.

I am also personally checking everything myself. I have a clamp style meter, a multi meter, and a kill-a-watt meter to plug appliances into to test for a few days. I am very good with electric but I am stumped.

 

[maple1]

This is kind of a boggling thing.

So was the amperage draw across the mains coming into the panel checked? And it agreed with what the power companies meter was saying?

 

[Doc C]

This is kind of a boggling thing.

So was the amperage draw across the mains coming into the panel checked? And it agreed with what the power companies meter was saying?

No. I need to get one of the meters that I can leave on the mains and track for a month to compare. With the electric company meter I have I can't see how much is being drawn in real time. The only thing it has is a flashing light essentially and the faster it flashes the more power is being used.

 

[maple1]

It shouldnt take a month of measuring. I dont think. If you had it hooked up for a day you should be able to tell. If the electric meter displays a running total? I would get an Efergy or similar, like, yesterday.

 

[maple1]

Actually I would also be very tempted to rattle the utility companys chain, hard, if you have paid an electrician to find something and he couldn't. That could be enough to indicate to them a possibly defective meter.

 

[Doc C]

It shouldnt take a month of measuring. I dont think. If you had it hooked up for a day you should be able to tell. If the electric meter displays a running total? I would get an Efergy or similar, like, yesterday.

It just depends on how intermittent it is. But I understand your thought process on a day or two of tracking.

 

[maple1]

Just did some re-reading. Can you explain your double water pump setup? Also, is that a smart meter? Or just a simple digital?

 

[Doc C]

Just did some re-reading. Can you explain your double water pump setup? Also, is that a smart meter? Or just a simple digital?

It is a smart meter.

I have an above ground 220/240 volt well pump that feeds from the well to an in ground cistern. The pump in the cistern is 110/120 submersible. The cistern feeds the pressure tank when the pressure drops below 40psi.

The well pump and cistern both have their own float switch. When the cistern is low enough for the float to request water then the well pump turns on until either the well level is below the float level for the well or the cistern is full enough that the float switch turns off.

Kind of a neat setup. Not sure why it was installed with a cistern since the well provides a minimum of 7 GPM and we ran our house straight from the well for a year with no issues. But it's nice to have the cistern during fire season since I can drop a trash pump line in it and get a ton of water in a hurry.

The well pump probably runs once a day maybe once every other day depending on how much we use. The cistern pump runs every 50-60 gallons or so. We have a decent size pressure tank.

I hope this is clear enough to answer your question.

 

[maple1]

I dont know anything about smart meters but from reading the above NYT link it sounds like in some places it is possible to do your own monitoring of them in real time. Maybe by adding an app thru your utility or something? Maybe could be checked out? I would still get on getting a monitor though.

 

[velvetfoot]

If you turn off the main breaker, does the meter still run?