[diysoio]

I've been having a devil of a time for the past decade with my electric bill. My furnace is particularly suspect, but I've had arguments time and again with a family member over the furnace's power usage. Basically they keep telling me that its usage level is "normal" for our home size.

So let me share a few things here and see if anyone has some thoughts or recommendations about what could be going on here:

First, here's electric usage history for the past 12 months:

Obviously the AC is using a lot of electric in the summer, but we're still pretty friggin' high in the winter months.

What I've noticed with a TED (The Energy Detective) is the following. I'll share the graphs first:

And the minutely graph for the some hours that's the real kicker:

As you can see I have a surge of about 13,000 to 15,000 watts whenever the furnace kicks on. I can see these specifically with some further breakdown with the TED interface in that it shows that my heating element circuit draws about 10,000 watts while the blower circuit has a surge of about 3-5,000 watts.

It has a 1/2 hp blower and we actually leave it on all the time to circulate air through our air filter system due to some bad allergies. Thus the blower surge is really peculiar to me.

From what I'm hearing I shouldn't see this much of a surge and I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm trying some other options like heating blankets and heating pads right now, but there will be a point very soon where we'll need to have the furnace going all the time.

Any thoughts on where to go from here or how to troubleshoot this further?

I'd like to first "sanitize" my heating situation due to these weird spikes and then move on from there to figure out what's-what elsewhere and drawing so much at this 5kw base load.

 

[joed]

I don't have a clue how to interpret those graphs.
As for the motor spikes I have one idea.
When the blower is running constantly, is it running at full speed? If you have a two speed motor the spike could be the speed change.

 

[u3b3rg33k]

first off you're not pulling a meaningful 22kW load. that's 92A @240V. it's probably the max your CT's can read and is an artifact, not meaningful data anyways.
I don't care, you don't care. set it up to give you a demand style 15min average, not an inrush measurement. then look again.

if I set my clamp meter on inrush and start up my dust collector I'll see somewhere around 70A @120V. that number is meaningless for power consumption analysis. POCO doesn't care either. 15A breaker doesn't pop.

 

[spitz1234]

Those spikes must be a motor. As you wont see a inrush with a resistive heat load. Do you have a well pump that keeps kicking on? Failed check valve or water leak causing the pump to kick on? Pretty neat monitoring system you have.

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[roughneck]

Is this a heat pump or straight electric furnace?
The air filter in the air handler isn’t meant to be used as an indoor air cleaner. It’s to keep debris out of the air handler. So hopefully your not using one of those restrictive 1” pleated filters.

 

[user_12345a]

What climate are you in and what kind of house are you heating?

Is your water heater electric?

Do you have ducts in unconditioned space?

Do you have a lot of incandescent pot lights?

Keep in mind electric resistance heat draws a heck of a lot of current. This being said, the usage is still through the roof.

Even in april and may when you should need minimal heating/cooling, it's really high.

 

[spitz1234]

Looks like a consistent 8kw glad I'm not paying that bill

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[beenthere]

Install a heat pump.

 

[SPS-1]

As already mentioned, electric motors commonly have a high momentary current when starting. Google "motor starting current".

I count 11 spikes per hour. So your furnace (electric furnace) starts up 11 times per hour ? That does not sound proper. But I am no HVAC pro. Is that possibly some other motor?

The annual pattern of energy consumption looks pretty normal --- note decline in usage in spring and fall when heat/AC rarely run. But the total energy use does seem extraordinary. For sure electric resistance heat is very wasteful. Tell us more about where you are and the size of your house. You are using the power monitors so you must have a good idea on what is consuming power. Even in spring/fall when heating/AC is rarely used, you are still using huge amounts of power. What is using all this power? You got a grow op going on ?

 

[SPS-1]

.... this 5kw base load.

That's like having a 17,000 BTU/hr furnace running 24 - 7. Surprised you even need a furnace.

 

[Yodaman]

In comparison, my NY 1500 sqft home with electric HW uses about 1200kwh per month. Need to post more info on climate region and furnace type, model, and size if you want better feed back.

 

[SPS-1]

In comparison, my Ontario 1500 sq ft home, with natural gas stove, HWH, and furnace uses in a year what the OP uses in a month.

 

[spitz1234]

I figured it out, he has a grow room in his basement with banks of grow lights and climate control equipment. The DEA will arrive shortly.....

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[user_12345a]

Install a heat pump.

The usage is through the roof even for resistance heat.

 

[beenthere]

Not or a shorted out strip heater in the electric furnace.

 

[silverbullet07]

I guess we would need a lot more info. Size of space, usage, climate, phase of power.

I have two heat pumps, heat and cool 4000 sq ft of space. Well pump electric water heater, lights and average 1100 kWh usage a month. We are in southern Va.

Here the power company can come in to help you find issues. You may check in on that.

 

[Bud9051]

Looks like a one post wonder. Returned the next day and apparently didn't want to comment further, and neither will I.

Bud

 

[spitz1234]

Looks like a one post wonder. Returned the next day and apparently didn't want to comment further, and neither will I.

Bud

I want to know

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[rander101]

Maybe he found the extension cord going to the garage next door where his neighbor was growing a garage full of happy plants.

 

[Yodaman]

or maybe he got spooked when someone suggested he was running a grow house