power usage

[Steve Meliza]

Looks like it is time for some new digs.

[Stan Krupowies]

average price of residential electricity is 12c/kWh,

Hmmph, obviously they don't include Connecticut in their calculations. Our residential electric rate is north of $0.16/kWh

[Jim Neeley]

Ryan,

Look at your bill from the electric company carefully, for it should show a number of itemized charges adding up to the $100. I expect there will be a monthly "admin" fee, this tax fee, that tax fee, maybe more feees, and a usage fee with a number of kwh and cost/kwh.

In Alaska I pay $0.17/kwh. For the usage fee to reach $100 I would have to use 588kwh/month. With 720 hours in a month (30days*24hours/day) I would have to average 816 watts continuously. At the other extreme, if *all* power was turned off except when I was there I would have to burn that in 32 hours (8 hrs/wk*4weeks), requiring me to burn 18,375 watts continuously while I was there. You can't sustain anywhere near that through a 20A breaker.

In order for the $100 usage to be legit, there'd need to be some more power, wired through a different breaker that serves your shop. Likely candidates to contribute to that could include electric room heaters, air hand units, exhaust fans, AC and hot water heaters. Otherwise, as others say, something is wrong (and it *can* be your meter).

The meter the power company bills you from, they own. If you confirm there's a problem with their meter, you can call them to check it. In most places there's only a charge for this if the electric company checks it and finds it was good to begin with.

Next I'd hire an electrician to check the wiring from the meter inward to see if other loads are hung off of your meter. For example, I once owned a duplex that shared a common natural gas furnace. It wasn't until my tenent had their power cut off that I learned the electricity for the shared furnace was on their meter. It didn't stay that way for long. <g>

Another test would be to turn off your one breaker when you leave for a month and if it doesn't drop you *know* something is wrong as you can't draw that much in usage fees in 32 hours of shop time.

Jim

P.S. I'm a registered Electrical Engineer which doesn't make me smarter about this than everybody else but shouldn't make me dumber than everybody else either.