On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:45:49 -0600, 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?
Frequency? No. The frequency of all utilities is controlled to the national time
standard and is essentially atomic clock accurate over the long term. This is
necessary for utility intertie and power wheeling.
Voltage higher? Simple. Many causes. Your distribution spur could have been
overloaded and in the process of storm damage rebuilding, that overload was remedied.
Ther is now less voltage drop from the substation to you and thus your voltage is
higher. They could have upgraded the substation transformer feeding your spur. The
voltage regulator (looks like a transformer but normally with only two power cables
attached) could have clicked to another tap automatically, have been reset manually
to boost voltage or have had its control box calibrated. The storm could have caused
the power transmission company to re-route power around other storm damage which
resulted in slightly higher voltage.
My plan now is to gather more anecdotal evidence (oxymoron?) and
question the REC on Monday.
Without hard data, you'll be ignored or patted on the head and told to go away. If
you want any attention from the utility then you'll have hard data at hand. Reading
your meter every day for awhile and comparing it to your calculated "before storm"
daily value would be one form of hard data.
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?
Let's analyze the situation as I understand it.
You and a few neighbors live on a dead end primary (term refers to the high voltage
distribution coming to your transformer) spur. Your power was cut by the storm and
was off several days. Based on mostly anecdotal evidence, you all claim to have
higher bills. You have asked neighbors who did not lose power and their anecdotal
responses were that their bills didn't go up. Presuming I got all that correct,
let's see what all you power losers :-) have in common.
You stated that you're on separate transformers so you don't have that in common. You
ARE on the same primary spur. You all obviously have separate meters. You probably
DO have the same meter reader. And you obviously have the same utility company. You
all suffered the same storm and were without power for the same time period.
To restate the commonalities,
primary spur
meter reader
utility company
same storm outage
same storm.
Not a lot in common.
Being on the same primary spur leads me to consider higher voltage after the power
restoration. Since you have no measurements, no way to know. A good clue would be
if your voltage NOW is higher than 120.
That leaves the meter reader, the company and the storm itself.
It is vanishingly unlikely that the meter reader made near-identical reading mistakes
on all your meters. It is also unlikely that the meters were even read at all. A
power outage that long tells me the utility was assholes'n'elbows during the
recovery. The meter readers, unless they are contractors, were likely working on the
recovery as ground and support crew. That's the way it works with my client
utilities.
That leaves the company itself and the storm. Specifically for the company, a
probability of an estimated meter reading even if they don't normally do estimating.
Arguing against that is that your non-power-loss neighbors say their bills were only
a little higher.
That pretty much leaves the storm itself and post-storm activities. We're back to
the storm recovery usage that you're fighting so hard not to acknowledge.
An estimated reading error and storm recovery usage are mutually exclusive. If the
reading was estimated then they could not know to bill for any storm recovery usage.
If the extra usage IS from storm recovery activity then they had to have read the
meter.
In my mind it boils down to two potential but mutually exclusive causes, militated by
the possibility of high voltage being a contributory factor. These are the only two
possibilities that could roughly equally affect the power losers but not affect
others.
If I were a betting man, I'd bet on an estimated reading. I'm intentionally
discounting what your non-power-losing neighbors said since memory for such things is
notoriously inaccurate. Perhaps even an estimated reading that was boosted to match
the storm-induced extra consumption seen across the system. IOW, if the system
demand went up 10% because of the storm then perhaps they boosted your estimated
reading 10%. In any case, it'll all equal out upon the next reading.
The utility is in a no-win situation forced on them by customer ignorance and
"consumerism" (that putrid combination of entitlement and something for nothing.) On
one hand if they estimate low then the "consumer" is going to deluge them with calls
complaining about the subsequent "high" bill the next time the meter is read. if
they factor the estimation up based on system demand in an attempt to make the
estimate more nearly reflect reality then they get deluged with calls from customers
like you complaining about a "too high" bill.
I'm getting the feeling that you're not going to be satisfied in this thread until
someone tells you "Yeah, those dirty *******s are stealing STEALING from you."
Here's what I suggest you do. Don't bother the utility until you get your next
month's bill. THEN do your math. If everything approximately evens out, you're
done. If you're not satisfied, first thing to do is call the utility and talk to
someone more senior than the receptionist and find out for sure whether they estimate
or not, and whether the bill you just got was estimated.
In the meantime you can busy yourself by reading your meter daily. Maybe even keep a
diary of what electrical-related activities goes on in your house each day. Number
of loads of laundry, amount of cooking, etc.
Here's what will happen if you make a big enough stink. The utility will come out
and pull your meter, replacing it with a new one. Your old meter will be sent to the
meter shop for a calibration determination. In the very very very unlikely event the
meter is in error then your bill will be corrected. From experience with meter
shops, I can say that the occurrence of this is so rare that it usually generates a
little chatter among the techs.
The overwhelming likelihood is that the meter will be in calibration. At that point
you'll get a call or perhaps just a form letter stating that your meter was checked
and was in calibration and therefore your bill stands. This is all that they're
legally and IMO, morally obligated to do.
John
--
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
http://www.johndearmond.com -- best little blog on the net!
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
What do you call 4 Blondes in an Abrams? Air Tank.