On Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:36:28 -0600, Steve IA
wrote:

wrote:


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.


No, we each have our own xformer. I've only spoken to 1 and he didn't
have (and I doubt many non-anal people have) records as good as mine.

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.

That's an interesting thought. 1/4 mile the other direction is a string
of houses on a seperate dead end line that NEVER lost power. (da bums)
I'll see If I can get info from them.

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.

The meter is on a pole 30 from the back door. Overhead wires into the
xformer and underground to the house. I have no reason to believe there
would be moisture in there all of a sudden.

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?

No unusual bulb burn or quick toast. ~120 vac both sides

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.

Extension cords.

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.

There were 2 lines prior to the storm. Upon restoration there was and
still is only 1 line feeding us.

Good questions all. thanks.

Steve
southiowa

I dont understand the 2 wire one wire thing. You got to have two
wires to complete any circuit. One furnishes the hot voltage, the
other is the neurtal/ground. I hope they are not relying on ground
rods to supply the ground. -OR- is this now a twisted cable (triplex)
(or would it be called duplex?)
I dont understand this....

With all the questions and answers, I do not recall. Did YOU read the
meter? Maybe the power company is just screwing you. The problem is
not electrical at all, it's accounting in the billing office........ ?