Excessive electric usage indicated! Help!

[msirach]

Sara: I believe Taredog has hit the proverbial "nail on the head!" With your dryer breaker tripping if the water heater is racked in is a very good sign of what he explained in his post is happening. Call your manager and calmly relay this information and mention that you are gravely concerned about it being a safety issue. It is NOT at all natural for the dryer breaker to trip off.

[taredog]

Originally Posted by msirach

Sara: I believe Taredog has hit the proverbial "nail on the head!" With your dryer breaker tripping if the water heater is racked in is a very good sign of what he explained in his post is happening. Call your manager and calmly relay this information and mention that you are gravely concerned about it being a safety issue. It is NOT at all natural for the dryer breaker to trip off.

msirach, your use of the term "racked in" leads me to believe you have either knowledge or experience with breakers bigger than the one's being discussed. If so remember your PPE and all safety concerns.

My hypothesis could be wrong. It could also be a missing neutral on one of the circuits. Bottom line, something is not wired correctly.

sarahama, msirach's post reminded me of another caution for you when turning off or on, especially on, circuit breakers.

Stand to the side of the breaker panel as far as your arm will let you, use your non dominant hand to operate the breaker and turn your face away when you operate the breaker. Circuit breakers closed in to a fault condition will arc.

ALL of us should operate home circuit breakers in this way, especially if resetting a "tripped" breaker.

Most electricians will laugh about the above advice, but remember, safety first.

Let us know the outcome of all this.

[msirach]

Very perceptive Taredog. Yes, I am employed in an industry where where we have breakers and disconnects up to 161kv. We have had arc flash training and seen the effects in videos. It is very important to stand aside of even a 120v breaker when operating it.

[dcb]

Yah, you need to get an electrician ( or someone with more skillz than your landlord) out there. You might tell your landlord you will send him the bill plus all the overcharges for the faulty circuitry.

[sarahama]

Here's the latest update. I tested the cost of running the hot water heater breaker once again (all other breakers/electricity off). Here's the results for electric use:
1st hour (4 kilo) (Water is heating from cold)
2nd hour (4 kilo) (Water is heating from cold)
3rd hour (about 2.7 kilo)
4th,5th hour (continued near 3 kilo)

Total use for 24 hours (after heating 2 hours) was about 64 kilo. At my current electricity rate of .166 per kilo, it would cost over $300/month to run the (new) water heater and nothing else in the apartment.

Currently my landlord is blaming the electric company, telling them they need to replace the grid. REALLY? My usage is within norm whenever I turn the water heater break off, so how could this be the problem? The electric company tested the meter and even replaced it (because my landlord was trying to blame them.)

The problem I have is my electric bills went down because I've been turning off the hotwater breaker most of the time, so all this might be difficult to prove in court. I will do the experiment again, but document it with photos of the meter every hour and time stamp it. I must do this before it gets cold!

So here's my question. The electric company can't be at fault, right? Blaming it on the "power grid" sounds suspect.

One last note: I posed this problem to several electrician's and there weren't sure they could find the problem even if they came to look at it. Hmmm

[dcb]

Are there any other apartments in bloomington?

Do you have a car? Do you enjoy discussions not involving water heaters?

[dcb]

hey, here is a thought, all this time we have been thinking the electricity is being re-routed. What if the hot water is being rerouted? Is there a shutoff valve on the hot water heater (so you can stop the flow of water only?)

If you stop the flow of water through the tank, does electricity usage look "normal"?

do you have your own water meter?

[NiHaoMike]

What happens if you disconnect the water heater but leave the breaker on?

[sarahama]

Thanks, I agree that these are good ideas recently posted. Shutting the water off at the hot water heater is a good suggestion, but I'm not sure if that would cause other problems or if I as a renter can "mess" with the hot water heater. The water heater is "wired in" so I can't shut is off. I'm looking for an honest qualified electrician still. It would probably be worth the money.

[sarahama]

to "Don't Panic." Oh, yes I am rather tired of this whole scene so that's why I'm moving forward with legal action.