Steve IA wrote:

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?

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. :-)



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)?

That's another definite possibility.

2. What could have caused this average monthly (31 day)usage when we
were all without power at 20% of the time?


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

Further thoughts and notions appreciated.

Steve
Southiowa


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