New shore service tripled energy bill

[KnowNuthin]

We recently ran a 50 amp service to our barn where or FW resides… I left the power connected over the past couple months to keep the battery topped off … I also left our fridge on (electric) for a couple guests who stayed a few nights (no a/c usage as it was cool outside)..: the fridge ran for the entire two month period…

I recently reviewed our electric bill… typically we’re in the 300-400 kWh range… last two months were 1186 & 1346 kWh…

Does the fridge use that much juice or should I be looking for a parasitic draw somewhere between the house and the barn?

[wing_zealot]

So let me see if I got this right. Your house and garage use 400kwh in a month and your 5th wheel (Litely used) uses 800kwh and you want to know if that sounds right?
NFW - there is absolutely something not right.
Whether it is sloppy workmanship, defective materials, or poor quality something is wrong between the garage and the RV (which also includes the RV and its infrastructure). Time to get a voltmeter out and see where all the power is going.

[LouLawrence]

Dusty R wrote:
We have a pole barn that is far enough from our house that it has it's own electric service. And when you have more than one service on one property you have to pay at commercial rate on one of them.

The higher rate charged for commercial service might cost more but would have nothing to do with the number of kWh's used which the OP says has dramatically increased.

[StirCrazy]

I added 50 amy service for my 5th wheel, we leave the fridge going all summer and use it for guests and such also. I have never even noticed an increase that is worth mentioning in my power bill..

Steve

[KnowNuthin]

Dusty R wrote:
We have a pole barn that is far enough from our house that it has it's own electric service. And when you have more than one service on one property you have to pay at commercial rate on one of them.

That's an interesting concept... never really thought about it, but it makes sense...

What we did, though, was to tap into an unused 50 amp service in our garage and run the wires underground approximately 100' to our pole barn... the garage now has a 50 amp breaker where the outlet once resided, there is a second breaker in the barn (next to the RV power outlet) to shut the power off... and a third breaker in the main panel of the house...

A bit of overkill, but, according to our electrician, it was the least expensive way of going about things... my wife, who is an electrical engineer, signed off on the plan so I'm good with it...

[Dusty_R]

We have a pole barn that is far enough from our house that it has it's own electric service. And when you have more than one service on one property you have to pay at commercial rate on one of them.

[down_home]

That is quite high I think. Our refrigerator/freezer ran, once cold, with ac running at 72 degrees about 5-10 minutes out of an hour, unless we were preparing meals and in and out of ,the fridge ad freezer.
Long cords, in high heat like Kingman Az will drop voltage, from experience, but effect on power consumption, I'm not sure

[pianotuna]

valhalla360 my 30 amp PD converter with a power factor of 0.7 draws 750 watts (measured). But we don't know what the OP has for a converter.

[Chum_lee]

CA Traveler wrote:
I'll speculated that it's the house but again a Kill A Watt will isolate to the RV and if so turning off CBs will isolate the circuit.

A 60A continual battery charge would result in warm batteries, possible bulging sides and maybe ready to explode.

Yep!

I don't know what number/type of batteries the OP has or their condition. If they are wet cell lead/acid, continuous over charging (IMO, over 10 amps each) WILL eventually result in water loss, then severe off gassing (hydrogen gas) which is explosive/corrosive. Chances are it will eventually trip the propane warning alarm if there is one nearby. The acrid smell of rotten eggs, (hydrogen/hydrogen sulfide gas) should be present for a while before . . . . . . . . boom!

Chum lee

[thomasmnile]

Wonder if:

The OP's electric utility uses "smart meters"?

If so, is the meter working correctly?

300-400 KWH per billing cycle? How do you do it?? 🙂

[Grit_dog]

I don’t think tripling your electric usage is even remotely possible with the RV fridge and converter.
But see how many amps it’s drawing if that’s what you suspect.

[CA_Traveler]

I'll speculated that it's the house but again a Kill A Watt will isolate to the RV and if so turning off CBs will isolate the circuit.

A 60A continual battery charge would result in warm batteries, possible bulging sides and maybe ready to explode.

[valhalla360]

MFL wrote:
KnowNuthin wrote:
Our RV battery is on its last legs...which is why I left the 50 amp service running...(would this cause additional draw?)


Since WH is not on electric, this could be a heavy draw, due to continually charging.

Jerry

This is my guess. If the battery is shot, the charger may be trying to charge flat out constantly.

A 60amp @12v charger might pull close to 800watts at peak output when losses are included. If it's going 24/7, that's around 575kwh per month. Add in a bit for the fridge and some other minor loads and there is your 700kwh increase.

[MFL]

KnowNuthin wrote:
Our RV battery is on its last legs...which is why I left the 50 amp service running...(would this cause additional draw?)


Since WH is not on electric, this could be a heavy draw, due to continually charging.

Jerry

[pianotuna]

My water heater will cycle for 15 minutes every four hours, if no water is used. It draws 1400 watts while running. That would amount to about 2.1 kwh per day or about 63 kwh per month.

It is a ten gallon Dometic unit.

Something else must be running.

Could it be a bad battery that the converter is attempting to resurrect?