A couple of years ago I bought an old house that was built in 1880. Right after moving in we had the old electrical fuse system replaced with a new circuit breaker box by an electrician. Our electric bills seem to be very high – almost twice that of other people in the area with similar houses.
I know a decent amount about electric but am no expert. I have not been able to determine what is using all of the power. I did however notice that when the new breaker box was installed, he used all 20 amp breakers even though most of the outlets in the house are wired with 14g wire. I've read that that is not safe to do, but could that also be the cause of our high electricity usage?
Electrical – 14g wire on 20amp circuits all over home
electricalelectrical-panelwiring
Related Solutions
Install a lock on the panel, or main shutoff. Then only give keys/combination, to those family members that pay their share. Check with your local government before installing the lock, as it may not be legal in some jurisdictions.
Search for a circuit breaker lockout. A lockout is a device that easily attaches to a breaker, and prevents the breaker from being turned on. A combination or pad-lock can be installed, which will prevent unauthorized users from turning the breaker on.
Rewiring a house takes about a week, give or take, if the electricians have free reign. If they have to tiptoe around the occupants it could take a lot longer. The best way to find out is to have a few electricians do a walk-through and give you a quote.
The way I've seen upgrading a house's electrical service with minimal disruption is to add a new breaker panel next to the original fuse box and then attach the original fuse box as a sub panel. (E.g. if the original box is 60A, you would feed it from a 60A double-pole breaker in the new panel). The panel upgrade could probably be completed in a day (with the cooperation of your electric company, who will need to cut power to the house and maybe run new wires). Then any new circuits can be run off the new live panel. But I have no idea if that is up to code or would pass inspection. I suppose in theory you are supposed to get an inspection before any new or rewired circuit goes live, which might make moving the circuits one-by-one prohibitive.
You may decide it's easier to stay with friends/family/motel for a week instead of dragging the process out for a while. Also note that rewiring a house will put a lot of holes in the drywall, which is somewhat messy and will need to be patched / painted when it's all over.
P.S. - if you are renting, this is probably all speculative, right?
Best Answer
Did the "electrician" pull a building permit prior to doing the work you commissioned? If not, then you have more than one problem here. If he did, presumably it was inspected and signed-off by the building inspector and perhaps you are misinterpreting what is actually installed. No professional electrician would install 20A breakers on a 14g circuit. Doing so is not only dangerous but illegal and unethical.
I suggest you contact this electrician and ask him to explain the work that was done.
If indeed the work was done by an unlicensed person without a permit, you should get a qualified electrician in immediately to inspect and correct the issues. Yes that might be expensive but a fire is going to be much more expensive.
But to address your root question, NO, this would not cause excess electricity usage. An electrician should be able to help you find the cause there as well but I'd be looking at the usual high-powered culprits, space heating, water heating, cooking.