Huge Electricity Bill - Help

[tsetsaf]

We are staying on the side of family right now. We arrived a couple months ago. First month electric bill went up a little... from $120 to $160. This last month from $160 to $800!!!!

Trying to figure out what the heck happened. It has been colder but we only run a 1500 watt electric heater (it has been running 24/7 since we got here). We did put heat tape on the water lines (40 feet of tape total). That is it.

Obviously this is strange and according to family all our fault. We are being told to turn off the heater, stop running laundry and basically being cut off.

We were planning on rolling on in a week anyways BUT we really want to try to find the culprit. (and yes we will be paying the $680 difference)

Can it be the:
1. heat tape
2. Space heater
3. well pump (we draw straight off of it)

Something else?

[pnichols]

Just as a comparison, we live in CA in a home that was all electric for the first 36 of our total of 38 years here. (We recently added a propane fireplace and switched the kitchen cooktop from electric to propane.)

Our electric bills for those 36 years were always into the high rate tiers every month. Even then, we never had $800 electric bills for our home's summer air conditioning or winter heating. This is including keeping a 1500 watt heater turned to about 55 degrees in the motorhome during the winter months while it's in storage in our back yard.

Something is definitely wrong in the OP's situation. Perhaps a "leak" in where the RV's main power cable plugs into the residential power, such that extra current was flowing over what the RV was consuming whenever they were plugged in?

[Ozlander]

And holiday lights can easily be 1500 watts for half a day every day.

[Canadian_Rainbi]

WNYBob wrote:
Read your meter now and call the electric co. Have the bill in hand to answer questions, if they calculated wrong they will credit the account. If not they can explain the charges. Get the info from the horses mouth.

X2

[pianotuna]

Hi

I run my rv 100% electrically. Peak load in cold weather is 7000 watts. That works out to about 168 kwh per day. This is at temperatures of -20 c (-4 f) and below.

An absorption fridge uses about 5.7 kwh per day.

Water heating with zero use is about 1.6 kwh per day. (more if you draw any water of course--about 1.6 kwh for each tank full that is warmed). On the basis of two showers per day about 5 kwh per day.

The 1500 watt heater if running constantly will draw 36 kwh per day.

Computer use is around 60 to 100 watts per hour. Assume 8 hours use, 0.5 kwh per day.

A heat tape may be 60 to 100 as well depending on length. 1.5 khw per day.

Your use could easily top 50 kwh per day.

[beemerphile1]

tsetsaf wrote:

...They did do some serious metal working during that period with welding and such....

Big power users like that really screw you if there is a load meter. One use of a power hog can jack the rates for the whole month.

I don't know, does anyone still use load meters? They were pushed hard by the power companies back in the 1970's.

[FunnyCamper]

gosh I would unplug all and hit the road fast 🙂 🙂

that bill sucks, hope it all get sorted out.

pay and move fast!!

[RVcircus]

Old-Biscuit wrote:

Solution..........
Family squabbles will live on into eternity so 'hat in hand---thank you---glad we got to visit'
Pay the increase in the electric bill. Kiss them on the cheek and move on

I agree. Right or wrong, is it worth the $$$ to start a never ending family fight? I'd pay the bill and move on. I've certainly spent more on dumber things.

[Dick_A]

Just for those unfamiliar with the terms being used in the previous posts 1,000 watts (1KW) X 1 hour = 1 KWH or kilowatt hour. Most of the terms used in the previous posts should be KWH.

[Golden_HVAC]

Heat tape will not use to much power. It is probably only about 60 watts total.

1,500 watt heater running 20 hours per day is 30 KW daily, and X 30 days is 900 KW. If they pay a rate say $0.14 per KW for the first 1,000 KW, and more per KW beyond the average power bill, then the price might have been up at 0.18 or 0.21 per KW beyond 1,500 KW used that month. So a typical bill might be say 900 KW, and you add 900 KW to that and get into the higher rate per KW, you can see a significant rate increase.

Of course next year stay in a nearby campground.

The refrigerator is also a 350 watt load, and depending on the temperature it can consume 3KW to 5 KW daily. This would be an additional 90 - 150 KW.

Then if you ran the electric water heater - it has a 800 watt element that might consume 3 KW daily.

The dryer and electricity for the washer can be 3 KW to 5 KW each load, depending on the length of time the heater runs while drying the clothes.

If you are showering in the home, and using a electric water heater, this can consume 4.5 KW per hour it runs, and it can take 3KW to make up for each 10 minute shower at 2 GPM.

Add to that a few extra lights run all the time because visitors are there, the TV is left running more hours each day, ect. and the bill went up.

Good luck,

Fred.

[down_home]

i doubt it is the well pump. We had a ten hp three stage pump at our last home. I watered the yard with it and washed cars and RVs.
One heat pump, one four ton heat pump.
We first moved there electric was like thirty dollars a month summer, and 50 dollar during winter.
Before we moved the bill was about 100.00 summer and two hundred to two hundred twenty winter and some real cold winters.
here with two total 17 ton heat pumps and all the lights it has been a bit over five hundred during last winter.
Summer it is around two hundred twenty, I think. Water is piped in now.
That's on 4800 heated sq ft.
The guessed at the bill when they drove by and saw the RV?
They used to estimate ours and some times it was a doozie.
We got in the habit of reading the meter ,after they came, or when they should have come by.
We had our RVs beside the house on concrete and sometime filled ready to go so heat was on. Electric unless it was going to be real cold and then the furnaces, all set at about 60 degrees though.
It seems to be something is wrong, on not being able to examine the evidence.
Check the meter reading and compare it with the last months reading.
If they are within reason then look for something else.

[Old-Biscuit]

tsetsaf wrote:
From the bill
5500 kilowatts

500 Base
5000 Over

500 base

5000 OVER......that puts you in top tier rate base PLUS super-user surcharge

ALL on you......NO

Well pump contributed BUT serious metal work //////lots of welding-----ding ding ding


Solution..........
Family squabbles will live on into eternity so 'hat in hand---thank you---glad we got to visit'
Pay the increase in the electric bill. Kiss them on the cheek and move on

[fla-gypsy]

5500kwh? Gee whiz, no wonder it was so high.

[tsetsaf]

smkettner wrote:

tsetsaf wrote:
We are running a test on the system now. We checked the meter today and will run as is for 24 hours. Check again tomorrow and then unplug the heat tape. Check again in 24 and turn off the heater, and on and on.

Good golly get a clamp-on meter and you will know in 10 minutes.

Sears Clamp-on $40

No need to say "Good golly" but thanks for the link. Will look into finding something like this (we are in a rural location).

[time2roll]

tsetsaf wrote:
We are running a test on the system now. We checked the meter today and will run as is for 24 hours. Check again tomorrow and then unplug the heat tape. Check again in 24 and turn off the heater, and on and on.

Just get a clamp-on meter and you will know in 10 minutes.

Sears Clamp-on $40