HUGE electric bill-looking to pick your brains

[NeedSpace]

I recently I purchased a rental property. The house is about 140 years old. One of units I pay the electrical bill because the basement is on it and it has the washer and dryer.

The previous owner told me the bill varied about $150-200 a month. my first bill was $580. I figured, maybe startup charges (which turned out to be untrue) caused the big cost. In Aug I didn't get a bill. So I didn't worry. Today I logged into my account and found a bill for a whopping $1600! This is a 1 bedroom unit. This is about what I have paid for my electric in my own house for the year. There is no electrical equipment I can imagine would cause this. I have owned 4 other houses in my day so not my first rodeo.

Called electric company, they said they sent a driver to my house and physically checked the meter. They also confirmed about $150-200 electric bills to prior owner.

Water heater is gas, furnace is gas, ac is a window unit but not that old. Tenant has a computer and a tv but really nothing else. Basement has a few lights, no sump pump or anything like that. Water is town water (no pumps). Frig is 1 year old. No dishwasher. Just a washer and dryer. Tenant is responsible and turns off AC when out of the house. Plus he was away for about half the month.

I am having the electric company come out and check the meter to make sure it is working properly but do you guys have an ideas on:

1) what could be causing this?
2) How to diagnose what is causing this?
3) How to fix the situation?

Thanks in advance.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by peteremsley

grow house?

Ha ha. My first thought, too.

[jyl]

Grow house next door tapping your electricity? Malfunctioning meter? Another unit somehow using the electricity from this one (and running a server farm or something?). Weird.

[Gogar]

Grow lights.

[KFC911]

Probably an avid reader with a large reading lamp...or something.

[WPOZZZ]

I had problems with the meter reader. I have the old style meters with the clock dials, and sometimes the meter reader reads them wrong.

[Bill Douglas]

I'd go and view the thing. It must be fair ticking over all the time to rack up that amount of power usage. Then start pulling fuses to see which one the drain is going through. Then follow that wire up to the grow room in the attic/neihbour's house

[fanaudical]

You might consider something like this:

5000-C Details

It might be worth to have an electrician check the main panel for any parasitic draw. A clamp-on ammeter checking each feeder one at a time might answer a lot of questions.

You mention the house is 140 years old. When was the wiring last updated?

[tabs]

Any under ground wiring might be grounding out the electricity.

It must nice providing electricity to the earth.

[john70t]

Do what post 8 and 9 said. That much juice is going somewhere. Maybe a possible short.

And take pictures/video of the meter with everything unplugged.
Start pulling fuses and see what changes (have a helper w/walkies).

That little meter needle must be spinning like a propeller to cost that much.

[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by NeedSpace

How to diagnose what is causing this?

Hopefully it's just a faulty meter, and the power co. will replace it, and give you a credit. In the meantime, there is one easy check you can do: Pull the main breaker and see if the meter still runs. It should be at a dead stop with the main breaker pulled/off. If it continues to run/creep, then it or any underground wiring on the "house" side of the meter is likely the problem. If you have a secondary breaker box for the meter itself, and can access it, you can switch this off as well (these are often found right below the meter). If the meter stops then, it's likely the wiring and not the meter.

If the meter stops as it should after pulling/switching off the main, you can pull/switch off all of the other breakers and replace/switch them on one-at-a-time to see if you can isolate the culprit. If still no joy, and the power co. says the meter/breakers/wiring are all fine, you may be able to request a "meter test" for a nominal lab fee. If they find it to be reading high/fast, you will typically get reimbursed for the fee and a credit back on your bill for X number of months
(obviously that varies with different utility companies).

If you/they are still stumped after testing the meter/wiring, you might look into doing a thermal imaging survey of the entire house. YMMV. Good luck!

[tdw28210]

If you find the power is terminating underground you might need to consider spelunking. Just to insure you don't have one of these going on...

"The Bust

Police were eventually tipped off to the operation after the electric company discovered the missing electricity and sent crews to investigate..."

Spark Report The Full Story Behind The Great Tennessee Pot Cave

[1990C4S]

Remove your personal details and post the bill.

It is very unlikely the meter is faulty, and a reading error happens once, not twice. You may not even have a person reading the meter, it's likely wireless, in which case there is no error.

Let's look at the logical probabilities before we go crazy speculating. People that 'steal' power and build grow ops steal the power before the meter, not after. Using huge amounts of power for illicit purposes when someone else is paying the bill is unlikely.

A clamp on ammeter is cheap and safe. You might need one to dig into this. You don't need anything expensive.

https://www.amazon.com/Auto-ranging-Digital-Clamp-Meter/dp/B001VGND88

[Esel Mann]

Needspace, You mention it is a house but also mention the problem is with one of the units. Are there other units within the house? If there are no other units within the house, how close is the nearest house? Does the house have any outside power outlets and are they sourced from the unit with the problem?

I'm surprised that the electric company did not offer to send someone out to figure it out. As others have suggested, perhaps have an electrician sort it out. 2-3 hours of time is nothing compared to the additional monthly bill you are dealing with.

1990C4S, I will agree the pros steal power before the meter, however there are many instances where people steal it from after the meter. Most get caught though if they keep doing it. This simply comes to mind because there is also mention that this began in the month that the tenant was absent for a long period of time *cough*,*cough*.

[1990C4S]

The world is full of stupid people. And thieves.

My guess is that it's something simple. I would still like to see the bill.

[dad911]

or they used an estimated reading for closing, and you are getting hosed for prior use.

The billing history will show estimated vs actual. Make sure that they are all actual

[masraum]

Clearly your tenant has been busy building one of these.

[creaturecat]

the previous owner may have been a liar? this has been known to happen. : )
how much $ per kwh?
it would have to be a hell of a large grow op to use that much power! don't they use led's now? anyways, pretty sure you would be able to smell the grow. if there was one.

[1990C4S]

He's had there high bills, and a site visit. This does not appear to be an 'estimation' problem. I think it's a consumption problem.

[john70t]

My first concern would be a dead short causing a fire.
Even lights can't use that much juice.