Lost Electricity -2

 Thanks to all who have thought on this and offered your opinions.
What I've concluded so far is that this is not just my problem. At least
10 neighbors experienced the same thing.  This tells me that it isn't
just a leaky extension cord.
A 20% reduction in the # of days with electricity means that on the days
I did have power I would have had to use 20% more each and every day to
maintain the monthly average of the previous 5 years. I was indeed 10%
colder for the month of DEC 07 than average, but heating is a small part
of our (collective) electric usage. the neighbors heat with LP, Oil ,
wood, or corn none use electric heat or heat pumps.

Someone mentioned higher voltage being pumped through the lines. Does
this make sense to you who are not electrically challenged? How about
more Hz?


My plan now is to gather more anecdotal evidence (oxymoron?) and
question the REC on Monday.
1.  Did they estimate Dec's reading. (or other months)?
2.  What could have caused this average monthly (31 day)usage when we
were all without power at 20% of the time?

Further thoughts and notions appreciated.

Steve
Southiowa

 

The frequency (HZ) is very closely controlled.  It may vary slightly during
heavy loads or periods of light loads.  Over a months time, it will average
almost exectally the same.  If it did not , the clocks would all be off by
some large ammount.

It is doubtful they could raise the voltage enough to make that much
differance without causing lots of problems such as burnt out light bulbs.

 Ralph Mowery wrote:


Oops!  I see you beat me to it...


The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam.  Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.

 Steve IA wrote:


The Hz should be very closely regulated.  Otherwise many clocks wouldn't
tell time correctly.  So although an aberration in Hz could affect the
efficiency of some devices (if you're interested, Google "hysteresis
losses"), I doubt that's your problem.

Whether the voltage makes a difference depends on the load.  Electric
heating (at least from the perspective of the consumer) is 100%
efficient, so if higher voltage led to a higher rate of consumption,
as long as the total heat called for were the same, the time the heater
was running would adjust downward so that the total power consumption
would be unchanged.  However, there are loads that essentially "waste"
some of their power during the course of their operation (typically via
heat sinks on regulators).  Those might be less efficient at higher
voltage.  I doubt it's 20%.

Make sure the billing cycles were the same length.  They vary from
month to month and year to year.

I agree with the other contributors to the thread who suggest a
difference in weather is the most likely candidate.

If it was cold enough to keep you indoors watching TV, I'd check
the power consumption of the TV.  :-)


That's another definite possibility.


+/- 30% isn't all that unusual under normal circumstances -- you could
look at your bills for several years if you have them.


The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam.  Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.

 CJT wrote

It wasn't that great, and , again, electricity is not a great factor in
heating our home.  i.e. 1/3hp (246 watts) furnace blower which runs only
a brief time as the wood burner (even with it's tiny blower fan)
supplies the lion's share of our heat.

No more than normal. We're pretty set in our routine. Even around the
'holidays'.

Re read the original post.  I've tracked Usage for the past 6 years by
month. That's how I calculated the average and spread.

Thanks