daninthelionsden
Member
The electrical usage suddenly shot up when it is normally at its lowest this time of year. We fear an informant may be in the house. We may have to go back and protect our property.
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[__ Prayer __] Please Pray For Our Home
- Thread starter daninthelionsden
- Start date
Tessa
Member
Perhaps the meter needs looking at?
Praying everything is ok.
Truthfrees
Member
praying
Christ_empowered
Member
it could just be someone stealing power. happened at a local non-profit, actually...a neighboring house was powering their household with the non-profit's power. :-(
at any rate, definitely praying. please keep us all posted.
at any rate, definitely praying. please keep us all posted.
Praying God will give you the understanding to correct that which is wrong and protection for your family.
daninthelionsden
Member
Had no real choice. I tried delaying them, then finally gave in when they installed a bad meter while we were out one day. It arched and sparked while we had brownouts in the house.......they left us little option.
daninthelionsden
Member
We had the house checked by 3 people very recently. They each reported no sign of break-in. So it's either the meter or a small energy consuming short.
Edward
2024 Supporter
You can request for your electric company to do a check out of their smart meter and an energy audit of the home. Then, supposedly you will be able to see where the increased usage is at. If it's not their meter then do your own energy audit. It's a wee bit time consuming but how much did you say your bill spiked?
The high amperage appliances in the home are, refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes washers & dryers and especially electric stoves and electric hot water heaters. If an electric appliance has an aging heating element it will definitely start pulling more amps and drive the bill up. You can take amp readings with it on and then Ohm the resistance when it's off and cold. It's usually a good idea to know what your appliance is rated for, and what amperage it actually pulls during operation. You can't just look at the size of the breaker because it would be wrong. a 40 gallon electric water heater is required to have a 30 amp breaker, but they typically pull about 16 to 18 amps and usually have 4500watt elements so you just plug it into Ohms law.
Your actual voltage say for instance it's a 4500 watt element and is getting 240 actual volts. So you go 4500/240 and that equals 18.75 amps. If everything was perfect. But it's all in Ohms Law, ok? Here is a link to Ohms law.
electricianapprenticehq.com
There is a couple different ways to do it. I'd test WH elements amp draw and voltage reading and that would tell me how many Ohms the element should ohm out at. Like say, it's getting 238 volts and it's pulling say 17 amps when on....so it would be 238/17= 14 Ohms and any reading out of line with that indicates a problem. As electric elements age their resistance goes up and that means more ampdraw.
The readings will be pert darn close to what it should be according to Ohms law. Anything a lot higher or lower than that indicates a problem. With a water heater you can change out the elements but for dishwashers and oven elements you're prolly better off just replacing the appliance completely.
And then you do that over and over until there is nothing left to test. Do you have an old blower motor on your old furnace? Test it and see. Plug it into Ohms law see how much those motor windings are supposed to ohm out at! It's the same procedure for everything in Ohms law.
And you prolly know that almost everything keeps pulling current even if it's not being used, right? Phone done charging, so you unplug the phone...but the charger is still pulling current! TV's and 'puters the same way now. I'm getting real good at unplugging chargers from the wall lately!
And there's a zillion DIY videos online if you want to refresh your memory on this. Or you can ask me and I'll tell you more, lol. G'nite!
The high amperage appliances in the home are, refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes washers & dryers and especially electric stoves and electric hot water heaters. If an electric appliance has an aging heating element it will definitely start pulling more amps and drive the bill up. You can take amp readings with it on and then Ohm the resistance when it's off and cold. It's usually a good idea to know what your appliance is rated for, and what amperage it actually pulls during operation. You can't just look at the size of the breaker because it would be wrong. a 40 gallon electric water heater is required to have a 30 amp breaker, but they typically pull about 16 to 18 amps and usually have 4500watt elements so you just plug it into Ohms law.
Your actual voltage say for instance it's a 4500 watt element and is getting 240 actual volts. So you go 4500/240 and that equals 18.75 amps. If everything was perfect. But it's all in Ohms Law, ok? Here is a link to Ohms law.
Ohms Law Power Wheel: Understanding the Electrical Formula Wheel - Electrician Apprentice HQ
As an electrician, if there's one thing that you need to have a solid understanding of - it's Ohm's
electricianapprenticehq.com
There is a couple different ways to do it. I'd test WH elements amp draw and voltage reading and that would tell me how many Ohms the element should ohm out at. Like say, it's getting 238 volts and it's pulling say 17 amps when on....so it would be 238/17= 14 Ohms and any reading out of line with that indicates a problem. As electric elements age their resistance goes up and that means more ampdraw.
The readings will be pert darn close to what it should be according to Ohms law. Anything a lot higher or lower than that indicates a problem. With a water heater you can change out the elements but for dishwashers and oven elements you're prolly better off just replacing the appliance completely.
And then you do that over and over until there is nothing left to test. Do you have an old blower motor on your old furnace? Test it and see. Plug it into Ohms law see how much those motor windings are supposed to ohm out at! It's the same procedure for everything in Ohms law.
And you prolly know that almost everything keeps pulling current even if it's not being used, right? Phone done charging, so you unplug the phone...but the charger is still pulling current! TV's and 'puters the same way now. I'm getting real good at unplugging chargers from the wall lately!
And there's a zillion DIY videos online if you want to refresh your memory on this. Or you can ask me and I'll tell you more, lol. G'nite!
daninthelionsden
Member
Thank you so much. I suspect an element in the water heater is going bad. My wife switched electrical providers to compensate cost wise. Of course this does nothing to decrease usage. The only major variable is A/C window units are on thermostatic control and usage will be determined by ambient temps. Everything else should stay close to a base line constant. The most likely wildcard being the water heater element.You can request for your electric company to do a check out of their smart meter and an energy audit of the home. Then, supposedly you will be able to see where the increased usage is at. If it's not their meter then do your own energy audit. It's a wee bit time consuming but how much did you say your bill spiked?
The high amperage appliances in the home are, refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes washers & dryers and especially electric stoves and electric hot water heaters. If an electric appliance has an aging heating element it will definitely start pulling more amps and drive the bill up. You can take amp readings with it on and then Ohm the resistance when it's off and cold. It's usually a good idea to know what your appliance is rated for, and what amperage it actually pulls during operation. You can't just look at the size of the breaker because it would be wrong. a 40 gallon electric water heater is required to have a 30 amp breaker, but they typically pull about 16 to 18 amps and usually have 4500watt elements so you just plug it into Ohms law.
Your actual voltage say for instance it's a 4500 watt element and is getting 240 actual volts. So you go 4500/240 and that equals 18.75 amps. If everything was perfect. But it's all in Ohms Law, ok? Here is a link to Ohms law.
Ohms Law Power Wheel: Understanding the Electrical Formula Wheel - Electrician Apprentice HQ
As an electrician, if there's one thing that you need to have a solid understanding of - it's Ohm's
There is a couple different ways to do it. I'd test WH elements amp draw and voltage reading and that would tell me how many Ohms the element should ohm out at. Like say, it's getting 238 volts and it's pulling say 17 amps when on....so it would be 238/17= 14 Ohms and any reading out of line with that indicates a problem. As electric elements age their resistance goes up and that means more ampdraw.
The readings will be pert darn close to what it should be according to Ohms law. Anything a lot higher or lower than that indicates a problem. With a water heater you can change out the elements but for dishwashers and oven elements you're prolly better off just replacing the appliance completely.
And then you do that over and over until there is nothing left to test. Do you have an old blower motor on your old furnace? Test it and see. Plug it into Ohms law see how much those motor windings are supposed to ohm out at! It's the same procedure for everything in Ohms law.
And you prolly know that almost everything keeps pulling current even if it's not being used, right? Phone done charging, so you unplug the phone...but the charger is still pulling current! TV's and 'puters the same way now. I'm getting real good at unplugging chargers from the wall lately!
And there's a zillion DIY videos online if you want to refresh your memory on this. Or you can ask me and I'll tell you more, lol. G'nite!
It is a very weird thing about that too. As we scrambled to evacuate that house, I tried to go around outside to the breaker box and turn off the circuit to the water heater, but there was a water mocassin blocking my path. Every time I moved....he moved. Almost every time in the past when I would encounter one, they either froze or ran(slithered) for it. But this one was almost as if he was guarding me away from passing him. Living next to Addick's Dam, we have those things show up in the yard about every 6 mos.
I wanted to trip that breaker because I had heard rumors of homes blowing up due to Hydrogen gas build up from water heaters left on for extended times w/o water usage in vacant homes. At a plant I used to work at we had to work on a steam line that was left unblinded. We had broken all the bolts free except one stubborn bolt needed heat to expand the nut enough for removal. With the steam flange slightly separated, I fired up the torch. When the flame got close to the flange, a loud pop and then a very short lived flame shot from the flange. The foreman started to panic. I told him I'd heard of Hydrogen separating from H2O molecules before and that since that was a super-heated line, it was most likely the case.
I read a news report of this happening to residential homes and that water heaters should be turned off homes are left unattended for long periods of time. That snake had other plans. I was bare footed and our plane was scheduled to leave soon so I didn't have time. I had to get dressed so we could leave and catch our flight. It was the strangest thing though.