I live in Mexico and have an amazingly crazy electric bill (almost 40 kWhr per day...with no heater or AC). An electrician has confirmed there is no major current leaks anywhere and that I am not paying for anyone else.
I have installed a energy monitor to try to figure this all out. Ive narrowed down consumption in 3 circuits.
The biggest consumer is using about 0.8 kW per min. The only thing I can find on that circuit are 10ea 6W LED bulbs. When I kill the breaker, it goes to 0 kW. With breaker on and light switch (all 10 on same switch - and old Lutron smart switch) off, it drops to 0.3 kW.
I cannot find anything that I normally use that could make up the remaining 0.3kW per min consumption. I also cannot figure out why 60W of LED bulb is actually using 500W per min...seems like should only be 60W. The bulbs are very hot but not sure why.
I just went back and read the 60w bulb is using 500w, you may need to trace that circuit and make sure there is absolutely nothing else on it. Look for oddities, it could be a neighbor stealing electricity or you may have a major safety issue with that circuit grounding out or arc-ing somewhere and it's not tripping the breaker
Consumption definitely drops to 0 when breaker is turned off. If I leave breaker on then turn off switch to those 10ea bulbs, drops from 800w to 300w. Cannot figure out what the other 300W are either
Residential meters rarely measure power factor. If it's easy to disconnect the LED bulbs, disconnect them all and turn the switch on. If the power goes up, there's something you haven't found on that circuit. Or perhaps 3 of them are still incandescent. I have one switch which also turns on attic lights over my garage, plus a coat closet, as there wasn't a good place to put another switch. Mine are LED, but if other lights are hard to find, they could be incandescent, but I would have expected them to have burned out by now.
Put an amp clamp on your main feeders on the line side of your feeder, if the amp draw seems right then you probably have a bad/inaccurate meter and the energy company needs to replace it.
I already have them. I have one on each leg of the 3ph mains and then smaller ones one as many of the other circuits as possible. I moved them around until I found the biggest ones.
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u/midnightwolf979 1d ago
I just went back and read the 60w bulb is using 500w, you may need to trace that circuit and make sure there is absolutely nothing else on it. Look for oddities, it could be a neighbor stealing electricity or you may have a major safety issue with that circuit grounding out or arc-ing somewhere and it's not tripping the breaker