Holly crap! energy bill trippled! help please

[dr pyro]

what your saying makes no sense if he is using 60 kw a day that is what he is billed for unless he has a faulty meter. balanceing a load saves no money you just drawing less current off that one pole or post but its still the same.if you saved money by doing this then somewhere you by passed the meter.

 

[jmansweed]

Go invest in a " Kill-A-Watt electrical usage meter " . Plug your devices in one unit at a time and find out your consumption. It's obvious with the spikes in your usage and your bill something is drawing an unusual amount of current. I know prices of electricity have gone up but the large Kwh increase must be coming from somewhere. Best of luck - on a positive note IMO $360 to $400 electric bills are not uncommon. I'm sitting w/ a freind now who pays $350 monthly and doesn't grow a thing. When I grew in a weed UNfreindly state I paid well over $400 monthly and never had an issue. Even spikes can be explained easily w/ sump pumps and random projects. My point is if things are paid on time.......RELAX. Keep growing your herb and do it proper - good Karma man and again best of luck.

 

[StoneyBud]

Go invest in a " Kill-A-Watt electrical usage meter "

Great advice!

I bought one some time ago and have plugged everything in my house to it.

It's kind of fun to play with too.

 

[SkunkPatronus]

Alright, my last energy bill tripled! last year, same month, we used 1930 kWH and this month we used 4412.. Usually the bill $120 and now its $364!

This is what I have..
600hps running 12hrs..
6"inline fine running 12hrs..
4"inline fan running 24hrs..
small oscillating fan running 24hrs..

400mh running 18hrs..
4"inline fan running 18hrs..
small oscillating fan running 24hrs..
small 5k btu ac window unit

This doesnt seem like enough to triple my energy bill!!! If this is the case, I might have to downsize.

Please help.

Someting doesn't look right with those numbers...

just in case you heat water by electricity rather than by gas, read below, if not, just dump the AC?

You should check your hot water heater and ALL of the lines in your house, it actually sounds like you might have a hot water leak or a blown out heating element in the actual heater... It surely doesn't sound like it's the growing thing, although AC can be a huge energy consumer and i'd dump that first. When the lines leak, you have a heater that doesn't turn off at all. When you have an element in the heater itself burned out it puts more than a double load on the one remaining and increases consumption dramatically.

 

[SkunkPatronus]

Alright, my last energy bill tripled! last year, same month, we used 1930 kWH and this month we used 4412.. Usually the bill $120 and now its $364!

This is what I have..
600hps running 12hrs..
6"inline fine running 12hrs..
4"inline fan running 24hrs..
small oscillating fan running 24hrs..

400mh running 18hrs..
4"inline fan running 18hrs..
small oscillating fan running 24hrs..
small 5k btu ac window unit

This doesnt seem like enough to triple my energy bill!!! If this is the case, I might have to downsize.

Please help.

Check the use time on your bulbs, the HPS and MH bulbs suck power at the end of their lives and produce far fewer lumens for it. They might need replacing.

 

[StoneyBud]

If the compressor on that a/c unit is running constantly, that could eat some juice. Compressors are energy hogs. Even the little ones.

Put the "Kill-a-Watt" meter on it for a week.

That thing takes all the guessing out of it.

 

[OGKushman]

I pay 300$ a month.

Happily

 

[dman1234]

i pay $450 every 3 momths,

600watt 12/12
400 watt18/6
6 inch vortex 18/6
2 oscillating fans 18/6
1 oscillating fan 24/0

i was pissed at my bill but now i don care.

thanks guys!!!!

 

[Relentless999]

Thx guys but check out my last post. My most recent bill was 200, and I'm fine with that.
Thx

 

[Johnnyrotten123]

Sorry bud but if your using 60kw a day then that reading is being read off of only 1 leg... If you have an unbalanced load lets say 40 amps on one leg and 60 on the other you will be charged for the 60... But if you can even that number up close to 50 on each leg then you only pay for 50..

I do this for a living.... I work for an energy managment/ HVAC company

Wrong-i said 2 months ago , unplug each heavy "current pulling device. Check your meter. Agin, the compressor in the ac unit is my bet

No disrespect on the "theory" ur sugggesting, but he's pullin wayyy too much current-he has a bad appliance- friggin unplug em till u find it-not a electrician per se, but this is an easy one-meters also "Rarely" defect--- throw that da^n AC away haha-thats your $$-i quit reading this thread a long time ago so i;m sure all this has been said. Just too tired to read the whole thread-peace all

 

[Johnnyrotten123]

Thx guys but check out my last post. My most recent bill was 200, and I'm fine with that.
Thx[/QUOT

See, living in the dark and no AC is worth it!!

 

[dr pyro]

Sorry bud but if your using 60kw a day then that reading is being read off of only 1 leg... If you have an unbalanced load lets say 40 amps on one leg and 60 on the other you will be charged for the 60... But if you can even that number up close to 50 on each leg then you only pay for 50..

I do this for a living.... I work for an energy managment/ HVAC company

all i can say is wow you have no idea what your talking about it will NOT save you money.if your pulling 60 on one and the other 40 thats 100 amps right so by balancing them to 50 50 your disperse that same amount of energy just more evenly down both sides right your usage is still pulling 100 amp not 50. i mean what do i know im just an electrician stick to your a/c leave the electricity to people who know what there talking about

 

[dr pyro]

if you are hvac energy management you would have noticed in the begining of this thread that the ac running for 24/7 was the culprit. oman the company who hired you is def losing some cash

 

[dr pyro]

well maybe you should not comment on a subject you know nothing about.it just irratates me when people like you come along and start posting wrong info.

 

[SkunkPatronus]

Sorry bud but if your using 60kw a day then that reading is being read off of only 1 leg... If you have an unbalanced load lets say 40 amps on one leg and 60 on the other you will be charged for the 60... But if you can even that number up close to 50 on each leg then you only pay for 50..

I do this for a living.... I work for an energy managment/ HVAC company

Hey, can a normal electrician, like my guy that rewires my basement outlets to make them water safe, do that? If i call him and ask him to balance my legs, will he be able to do this for me ya think?

 

[StoneyBud]

Ok folks. I couldn't care less which of you is correct, I don't know either of you.

I called a guy who is a "Master Electrician" and TEACHES the subject.

I don't know why someone didn't do this before this escalated out of sight into a flame war.

I'm told by this guy who has 40 years of experience wiring buildings, that Load Balancing is done only to provide a safer system. If too much power is on one leg vs another, it creates more heat in the line drawing more power and causes a faster insulation breakdown. The resistance of the line as a result of the additional heat would make a difference on the power bill of pennies per month, not dollars.

That settles the argument.

There are dozens of "Myths" out there that are popular. They get handed from one person to the next and through either embellishment or ignorance, the myth gains popularity strictly because it sounds good. When taken down to it's base elements, most myths can be weighed for accuracy as this electrical myth has just been resolved.

If anyone disagrees with this result, the person who instructed me on it told me to tell them to just call any electrical contractor and ask to speak to someone who is an "Master Electrician". They will have the education and experience to tell you that what he's told me is something you can take to the bank.

Pardon me for stepping in on this, but the flames were starting to get out of hand.

 

[dman1234]

and thats that.

 

[dr pyro]

my point excatly and most of my post are questions and yes im a rookie. there was no explaining anything to him he beleived what he thought was right and was no convinceing him otherwise thanks stoney for the helpful post.

 

[Johnnyrotten123]

Thanks stoneybud even thogh mindseye "fix" made no sense from the get go. I work in 3 different casinos, dealing with current pull from different types of games and work with "electricians' This is no "master;' issue here. H runs his ac 24/7-period. I feel dr pyro has said NOTHING wrong. Only comment when positive. Mindseye, its pennys, not triple the amount. Also on a side note, gfic outlets, hopefully "his guy' understands before he wires this outlet. Alotta topics on here can be right or wrong but not dangerous. Dr pyro is just reminding that electricity can hurt/kill- i hardly ever post either but i know a lil on this topic. Still at $200, guess u only runnin hat AC 1/2 as much-it draws alot of juice bro

 

[StoneyBud]

Like I said in my post, I don't know either of these guys and don't want a flame war between them being in the public eye of the group.

I doubt that they will come to peace, but I do hope they just take it into PM's where it needs to be anyway.

All I wanted to do is settle the argument with facts.

Let's get back to growing MJ.