On Sun, 20 Jan 2008 05:02:41 -0600, Steve IA
wrote:

wrote:
Every electric bill I have ever gotten clearly states if it's an
estimate or actual reading. My company places a code in front of the
amount. I think mine uses EST as estimate and ACT as actual.

By chance, when the main wires fell, I assume you were still connected
to the transformer (in other words the primary wires fell). Could
someone have connected a generator to one of the houses connected to
the transformer, which backfed to other houses?


We happen to be on a forked dead end of the power line. The wires broke
with 4 houses connected to each other via the lines, but not to outside
power. Our transformer is on the pole behind the house and lines are on
the pole and underground from the xformer to the house.
AFAIK all 4 houses had generators, but I don't know how the other 3 were
hooked up. Ours didn't go near the circuit box or meter.
If someone did connect to the lines which energized to backfeed to our
house wouldn't our house power have been restored by their generator? I
don't understand how a backfeed could affect our meter without providing
power.
Thanks for you thoughts.

Steve
southiowa

OK, in reviewing the thread and responses, you appear to have a
mystery. Part of solving it to your satisfaction involves getting
more information.

First, you seem to have four houses in the affected group. I am
assuming that they don't share a common transformer? Can you get
further info on usage at the other three houses, such as actual
previous month and previous year usage? That would confirm or not if
you were the only one really affected.

Second, can you get usage from a control group in your area? Homes
that _weren't_ affected by the outage, but were in the same weather
situation? That would allow you to put to rest the arguments about
different use because of more degree days.

Third, where is your meter in relation to your house and the
underground lines? If you have a conduit underground from your meter
to your house, is there any possibility that the wire in that conduit
was nicked in installation or spliced, and water entered the conduit
during the storm? If so, until the water contacting the exposed wires
was heated enough by the resistance to evaporate away, there could
have been a short. Once it was evaporated, usage would go back to
normal.

Fourth, did you notice light bulbs burning out when the power was
restored, toast in a toaster oven cooking faster than normal, etc.?
If the voltage was high enough to crate usage issues, this should have
been an obvious tip-off. Can you report actual voltages from both
legs of the main breaker panel?

Fifth: "During the ice storm we used a gas generator intermittently
during the daylight to power the freezer, tv, occasional PC and a few
lights ." Did you plug the generator into a wall socket, or run
extension cords, or is it permanently attached through a transfer
switch? It shouldn't make a spit worth of difference, but in the
interest of getting as much information as possible, I'm curious.

Sixth: You mention that there were originally two leads to power your
area and now there is one, which means that there were linesmen
working on the line. I'll leave it to John and others to determine if
there is any way that an incorrect connection, or wrong transformer
tap connection, or anything else could have done something like double
or quintuple the voltage coming to the meter for an hour or two or
otherwise upset the meter. I can't think of any way offhand, but I
don't have the expertise to say if it is or isn't possible.