Electrical – Fluctuations in electricity use while we are on vacation

electricalheater

We went on vacation for two weeks recently and I noticed that our PG&E bill had some unusual behavior.

  • Our overall bill wasn't that much lower than it was when we were home.
  • Different days had very different amounts of energy use. One day (63 degrees average temperature) had 5 kWh of energy usage and a few days later (65 degrees average temperature) PG&E reported 15 kWh of energy usage.

What could cause such fluctuations in our electricity use? We closed the windows and blinds and unplugged most disposable electronics except the TV (which was turned off), refrigerator and a small Coway air purifier (left on by accident). The refrigerator was installed within the last five years.

A smart home app sends alerts any time the doors open or close, and it did not fire for the entire vacation, so there's no chance family members or kids were secretly home.

We have a gas heater, no A/C and the we set the thermostat to "eco mode" = 50 degrees = while we were gone.

edit Here's a photo from the low energy day, 5kWh of energy use:

Hour by hour chart of low energy usage

And high energy usage – note the different scale on left hand side.

hour by hour chart of high usage

No one was in the house on either of these days.

Best Answer

Do you have any electrical convenience outlets on your house ? While your home's inside is secure, what about the outside ?

I would look into the possibility of the above.