PSE&G usage doubled the last two months

Hello,

I came across this forum in a Google search for an explanation of how my PSE&G electric
bill has sky rocketed. I'll start with September of 2011 vs 2012 thru January of 2012 vs 2013.
The household changes for 2012 are, my in-laws stayed with us from September 26th through
January 7th 2013 & my son was born October 25th of 2012. The storm known as Sandy struck
October 29th knocking out power until November 7th. The only changes to consumption aside
from two extra bodies are the 2x wipe warmers, 1x bottle warmer, 1x baby swing and 1x baby
monitor. The two wipe warmers are rated at 12v @850mAh, the swing is 12v @9 watts and the
bottle warmer is 12v @ 350watts.

The wipe warmers are on 24/7 while the bottle warmer is used as needed, roughly every 3 hours
for 6 minutes. The swing is on an avg of 15 hours a day, it has music he likes to sleep to.

I have read that a short in the ground cable or other PSE&G cable could be causing this increase
but could I prove it? and wouldn't that short have to be on my side of the meter? The meter is
attached to the house so this seems unlikely. I do have a second fridge that for about 7 months
has been leaking water inside the unit rather than out to the pan. The temperature settings for
this refrigerator are kept on the middle setting. It is a second fridge so it is in the garage, an area
normally cold in the winter, if that could be impacting it's run time.

What baffles me is that December, when the in-laws were here, is lower than January and my wife's mom
cooked all the time and of course, more demand on the water heater. Now that they have left, we
have not had time to cook so it has been take out from Boston Market or Cheesecake Factory every
night in January yet the bill climbed. How can this be? How bad would the garaged refrigerator have
to be running to suck up over 767kW? Mind you, I lowered the damn thermostat!

When I call PSE&G, what should I tell/ask them to probe for areas that could implicate their equipment
as the fault, if it truly is their equipment. If it isn't, my next guess would be the heat pump but that
was installed in 2010 by the Home Depot and is a SEER 14 unit that has been running fine. What could
I ask/tell the contractor that installed it to determine if the auxiliary heat strips are faulty? or coming
on more frequently than really needed.

Any help will be greatly appreciated as a $585 electric bill in December and a $718 bill in January has
me very alarmed for the February bill. This is a 25 year old 1400sq foot townhouse with only 2 walls that
face the outside, it's not a 3000sq foot 80 year old house with drafty windows!



This is an average of PSE&G rates; $0.116845 per kWh.

September 2011
Total kWh used: 1025
Avg outside temp: 72

September 2012
Total kWh used: 768
Avg outside temp: 71
Thermostat setting: 76
--------------------------
October 2011
Total kWh used: 920
Avg outside temp: 66

October 2012
Total kWh used: 908
Avg outside temp: 61
Thermostat setting: 74
--------------------------
November 2011
Total kWh used: 1362
Avg outside temp: 53

November 2012
Total kWh used: 1623
Avg outside temp: 46
Thermostat setting: 74
--------------------------
December 2011
Total kWh used: 1957
Avg outside temp: 46

December 2012
Total kWh used: 3360
Avg outside temp: 43
Thermostat setting: 75
(lowered to 71 when I saw this bill)
--------------------------
January 2012
Total kWh used: 1914
Avg outside temp: 34

January 2012
Total kWh used: 4127
Avg outside temp: 35
Thermostat setting: 71