Energy Crisis ?

"if the power company reduced the outgoing current from the transmission station, would the house meter register more usage to supply a household demand that has remained consistent..."

I did not understand the relationship between your meter indicated more energy consumption with the average power generation in the station. I mean, there will not be more power going into your meter if there's less power available in the station only. Makes no sense.

You mentioned that your bill has increased, not your consumption. I'm not used to your kind of meters, but in my place the meters have a built in counter that is checked monthly and then the bill is generated. The meter does not have a totalizer in $ itself.

If your meter does the same, just check if the power consumption remain the same. If it's the same, your company have just raised the prices.

If not, you may have some problem in your electrical installation that is drawing current in a level not enough to trip the system. This may increase the bill a lot. Any defect of isolation in the cables or in some device, or maybe you're leaving something turned on without notice.

Yes, rates are up. At least in the US, and Texas in particular, due to deregulation and the effects of last year's oil spike. See if you can find the bill from last year, and compare your rates.

I worked at an electric utility for 11 years as a technical advisor in marketing and an energy specialist.

Electric meters are seldom in-accurate and the ones that ARE in-accurate usually benefit the CUSTOMER. ( Spiders can get into the meters and slow the gears down.)

The Public Utility Commissions require power companies to maintain 10% of 240 volts which means they can by law send you 228 volts to 252.

It's better for you if they send you LOWER than average instead of higher.

All electrical loads in your home which have motors ie: refrig, washer, A/C etc. will not be affected much by the power fluctuation nor will it drastically affect your electric bill, BUT...! resistive loads ie: light bulbs, elect. stove, elect. HWH etc. WILL be greatly affected.

A small increase in voltage greatly increases output energy in heat or light as WELL AS POWER CONSUMPTION....PLUS it greatly reduces life span of these devices!

Just remember, ever single solitary electron that flows thru your electric meter in reality ends up as HEAT inside your home!

Your refigerator is actually a 600 watt heater. Your TV is a 200 watt heater. Your computer is a 400 watt heater, your battery charger for your electric toothbrush is actually a 12 watt heater, EVERYTHING ends up as heat.

If you have sudden electric increase, find someone with an AMPROBE and measure every single breaker with everything running in your house. Turn things off one at a time. Measure and record the current. Measure the voltage and the amperage. ( Volts times AMPS = Watts

Look at your light bill. Take the bottom line $$ and divide it by the total kwh you were billed for to determine your actual price per kwh ( a kwh is 1000 watts drawn for 1 hour.)

Typical electricity is approx 8 - 10 cents per kwh. So a 100 watt light bulb burns for 10 hours and costs you 10 cents.

Hate to turn off your computer and your wife's computer and your kids' computers? Collectively, they're likely costing your 10 cents per hour, times 24 hrs = $2.40 per day times 30 days = $72 per month !

Use this method to determine how much all your appliances COST you per hour.

Oh, a sudden jump in a light bill....check your refigerator, electric water heater and well pump if applicable or septic tank pump if applicable. These are the most likely appliances to "ground out" and draw needless electricity into the earth.

Snicus, Great and thorough answer. Thanks for the professional input.

Another method of reducing the energy bill is to switch to a less convenient, lower cost energy. If the computer switch is not convenient to deactivate, I doubt loading a corn stove daily with whole kernel shelled corn would be of interest.

If so see www.cornstoves.info or www.msnusers.com/cornstoves

A quick check on the zero meter calibration versus power leakage is to throw the main circuit breaker off and see if the meter continues to rotate. Proceed to return each item on-line on each circuit to identify the source of the power leak

You never pass up an opportunity to sell your products do you? I thought this was a site for people to get help, not another place to be bombarded with sales promotions.

To be honest, I don't mind. Burning corn is a really good way to help alleviate the so called energy crisis. My parents were thinking of adding a corn stove to heat our garage. And no I don't think that we are being "bombarded" with sales promotions. He added a couple sentences and a link, and answered the persons question. So what.

My technique if I have any doubts over the utility bills is to record the meter readings - for us that is oil, electricity and water, every week and draw a graph of them

You soon see when the graph changes suddenly without a similar change in the weather.

The most noticeable was when we change the electric shower to a more powerful instant heater. Plenty of extra water means plenty of extra electricity.

The last time this happened to us was when there was a slow overflow from the hot water tank header. Too complex to explain, but it caused us to be wasting hot water and the electricity to heat it.

Hugh Mattos

Chartered Engineer.

The utility meter is a true watt/hour meter and uneffected by voltage fluctuations.
Your difference is probably to be found not in the published 'rates`, but in the
'Energy cost surcharges` and other 'extras` to be found on the bill.

BTW.: The only consuption likely to be greatly effected by small voltage changes
is your incandescent lighting.
Water heaters etc. are thermostatically contrilled so the greater outputs will be of shorter duration, and motors tend to draw less current at higher voltages.

Just to set the problem in contrast.

In denmark we pay around 2 DKR per 1 kWh wit alle taxes inc. green taxes for Windmills ect..

It is abot 33 cent for a kWh.

1l of petrols for cars 10 DKR= 1,8 USD for 1 l litter.

Then we have the Worlds largest incomtaxes op to 65% of the last earn DKR.

The penetrations of cars is also one ofte the higest.

And we still belongs to one of the most riches nations in the World and with a high livingstandard fo even the poorest people in our country.

Where is the energychrises in the states?

Regards mmicapt

Just to set the problem in contrast.

In Denmark we pay around 2 DKR per 1 kWh wit alle taxes inc. green taxes for Windmills ect..

It is abot 33 cent for a kWh.

1l of petrols for cars 10 DKR= 1,8 USD for 1 l litter.

Then we have the Worlds largest incomtaxes op to 65% of the last earn DKR.

The penetrations of cars is also one ofte the higest.

And we still belongs to one of the most riches nations in the World and with one of the higest livingstandard with free Medical and hospital for even the poorest people in our country.

Where is the energychrises in the states?

Regards mmicapt

Mmicapt, It's not so much an energy crisis (in my opinion, but there are a lot of people who think so), but it is the people's resistance to change. People here are used to cheap energy, and aren't willing to look for other means of getting it. Although things are changing, because there's a solar cell company near my home town that has the next 70 mega watts of solar cells sold already. They have been building factories in Germany and all over the States. So maybe people are starting to switch over to greener sources of power. I seriously think that there would be riots if we had to pay 33 cents/ kWh.

regards,

Nick

Just for comparison the electricity costs in the UK for domestic supplies are about 22 cents per KWhour. Sadly that compares with about 12 cents per KWhour for oil as purchased and delivered at the domestic level and about 8 cents per KW h for gas for domestic use by pipe - bottled or tanker gas is the same price as oil..

It is no wonder that we all want to burn oil and gas if even nuclear electric is so expensive.

Hugh Mattos

Chartered Engineer

This is probably due to admin error (finger trouble) contact you supplier and ask why.

You can check your meter against a clamp meter with a known load connected.

Not all things should be left to an expert they make mistakes, just as much as any other person can. Work out a suggested how much extra usage this would be, and then argue your case.

"We have not increased our consumption, we actually have reduced it."

"... if the power company reduced the outgoing current from the transmission station, would the house meter register more usage to supply a household demand that has remained consistent.....If so, what a great way to increase revenue!!"

You are not being consistent here. If you have not increased your consumption as you said, then how is it you think the utility has made you increase your consumption?

If they had employed some trick to try to increase your consumption, then it would show up as an increase in kWh on your meter. If your kWh is, as you claim, less than the previous year, then it is less! In other words, everything you need to know is right there on your bill from the utility. You either used more than you thought you did, they raised rates more than you think, someone has tacked on some extra fees or taxes, or someone made a mistake. Get out your calculator and find the change.

Just a point of order, the utility cannot reduce "current", they can only reduce or increase voltage. Current is "pulled" by your loads. If the utility were to increase voltage, as several others have said it would not dramatically increase current on anything but your electric motors because they might run in saturation and therefore waste more energy. Incandescent lights would burn a little brighter and use a bit more energy, but to see a $150 increase in a month you would need to be burning about 20 x 100W bulbs for 24 hours a day for 30 days. Fluorescent lights and switch mode power supplies in things like electronic appliances would be unaffected.

If the utility were to decrease voltage, contrary to popular belief your power consumption would actually go down. They actually do this in some areas as a conservation method. It's called CVR for Constant Voltage Reduction and is implemented in times of power crisis.

"Turn it off".

"Turn it down".

"Insulate".

Computers should not be consuming so much engergy even if you leave them on. Most recent motherboards and monitors are energy star compliant and have power settings to turn off hardrives and monitors to reduce power consumption. You can select various times for various hardware to "sleep", and reduce powere use wihtout having to do a full reboot every time you want to use the computer. I can "wake" my box and restare MS XP in about 20 seconds instead of forever to reboot cold. True, some power is consumed, but not the 400W when it is running.

Computers draw more than you think. I sell and design Air Conditioning and heating. A couple of computers running in a room INDEED "cooks" the room, it's not an incidental load. You should plug your computer into one of those portable watt-hour meters once and see for yourself.

My battery UPS has a row of power usage LED's on the front. My computer draws virtually the same amount either "awake" or "asleep". One more bar shows up when my monitor "awakens", and yes, I definitely feel more heat in the bedroom when it runs versus when I occasionally shut it down.

Be sure they can read it clearly without obstruction. About 20% of readings are estimated for various readings. Ask if the bill is "read" or "Estimated".