We just got an overly large (several hundred dollars over normal) electric bill from the city.
Being a bit of a diy I picked up an ammeter to to track down the reason. None of my circuits are clocking in over 2 amps in normal usage. I tried powering up everything in the house including all of the major appliances.
I only came up with a total of 22 amps, absolute max draw. US standard 110V.
I did the math but I wasn't able to crack our normal $150 / month (calculated out using the local kilowatt hour pricing).
What the heck is going on? Anything more for me to do before calling the electrician?
Edit:
The meter box is mounted to the side of the house, under a overhang.
When I used the ammeter I was working off the main hot line from the meter when I powered everything up.
I did see the other diy post.
We do have central air, howeverit was a lot cooler last month vs the same time last year. The usage shouldnt have spiked, at least that much.
The price per killowatt hour is comperable to last year as well.
We generally clock in at around 1200 to 1800 kilowatt hours. Last month was a bit over 2800.
We already tried (unsuccessfully) to lodge a complaint with the electric company.
The odd thing is the variance -$150 one month and near $1000 the next, with no noticible change in utilization patterns.
Best Answer
Are you sure your numbers are right? You say your kWh usage has about doubled, but your bill has increased 6x.
Anyway some utilities only do an actually meter read ever 2 or 3 months, then they estimate the bill for the other months. That can lead to extremely high bills if they've been underestimating and then they finally do an actual read and bill you for the extra that you've used. In theory the company is supposed to track your usage over time and get a good estimate but in my experience they can be wildly inaccurate. Your bill will tell you if the meter read is actual or estimated. Also note that some utilities increase rates in the summer when demand is high, so you may be suffering more if they just switched over to the summer rates.
If the problem is not just odd billing practices, you will need to dig a little deeper.
To help you narrow things down a little more, I would try to keep a log of your meter. E.g. try to write it down every day, or even twice a day to find out if your electric usage is constantly high or is intermittent. (Note that reading an old-fashioned dial meter is a little counter-intuitive, since each dial spins in opposite directions. See How to Read Your Electric Meter).
If you're really using 1000+ kWh extra each month, that's an average extra draw of 1.4 kW, which is pretty large. You should be able to see the meter spinning very quickly. Try shutting off circuits one by one to see what will slow the meter.