My electricity bill!!!

Okay so my boyfriend and I bought a 2008 heartland Sundance. We currently rent a lot at an RV park where the rate for electricity is .15 per kwh. Normally our bill is between 50 and 60 and I expected it to go up a little with us living in Texas and it becoming summertime. But our bill has gone up to 130. We checked the meter on June 1 and it was at 1890 and now today 2.5 days later it's at 2235. Which  puts us at a 52 dollar bill 3 days in. If it keeps going at this rate our bill will be over 500 dollars!!!!! When we went to investigate we noticed our 30 amp plug was melted. I'm trying to figure out why it melted and if that has anything to do with our bill going up. Also we recently installed a new converter at the end of April. So that fits into the timeline of this months bill. Please help any advice would be greatly appreciated. We can not afford that bill!!!

How long is the A/C run every day?
1 or 2 A/C's

It's one ac and it's set on auto so it cuts off and on all day but we put it at 73. And we've been at this lot for three months. The first month our bill was 54 and the second month it was 56 and now it's 129. Double plus some.

RayniDaze said:

When we went to investigate we noticed our 30 amp plug was melted. I'm trying to figure out why it melted and if that has anything to do with our bill going up.

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If your plug was truly melted then it's possible you have a small short inside the plug.  The short is probably a high resistance one so the current flow is relatively small, but it would create heat that could build up to where it would melt the plug.  It would also act as a continuous electrical load which would definitely affect how much electricity is being used.  Get that plug fixed before you have a fire!

What else do you have on inside the RV?  The refrigerator uses about half as much electricity as the air conditioner, but it literally sips propane.  Switch it to propane to cut down on your electric usage.

How about the electric side of the hot water heater?  It also uses about as much energy as the air conditioner, and you can also switch the water heater to gas.  Another tip is don't leave it on (in either mode) all day long.  Let it heat a tank for your morning showers (shouldn't take more than 20 minutes per shower) then after you're both done showering turn it off until the next morning.  You should have enough hot water reserve for washing dishes, etc.  If not, turn it on while you're doing the dishes, then turn it off.

I doubt the converter change-out had anything to do with your high electric bill.  It just doesn't draw enough power to make a big difference in the electric bill.

A melted plug is rarely a sign of a short inside the plug, any short that carries enough current to make a noticeable addition to the electric bill will incinerate the plug, not just scorch it.  A melted plug is almost always is a sign of trying to pull too much electricity through it.  High currents overheat the plug by heating the pins, which in turn melts the rubber.  A loose or damaged socket can also heat the pins by not making firm contact with them.

In any case, if the plug is damaged you need to replace it.  The yellow Camco 30 amp Power Grip plugs are easiest to install.  Cut the old plug off of the cord, then cut the cord back a couple of inches until you come across clean, bright copper in the wires.

Note that your 30 amp plug is only rated at about 25 amp continuous. Running at max rate or above will cause it to melt. Also if connection is old and worn or loose it will increase power loss across connector and cause melting.A bad/shorted plug will not cause increase in power utilization, shorts are self-correcting, the burn out to open.

I'm curious why you changed your converter and who did it?

You don't have a neighbor who is "Borrowing" some electricity do you?

Yes a plug that is getting hot will draw some electricity, that should be fixed, why it is getting hot is a matter of debate.

Now for some math, it has been hot in much of Texas the last few weeks, with temperatures already being in the range that one would normally expect in July and August, with day time highs approaching 100 degrees and night time lows still in the low 80's.

A typical 15,000 btu RV air conditioner will consume something around 12.5 amps of electricity while the compressor is running (maybe as high as 14 amps).  In my 28 ft coach sitting in full sun in this climate the single air conditioner runs constantly during the daylight hours, as it is a slow loosing battle to keep the interior cool during the day.  Shade, adding windshield sunscreen, opening the awning for shade, etc. helps some.  During the cooler night hours it cycles on and off.  So just for the sake of easy math lets say you have a single 15,000 btu air conditioner that runs with its compressor running 20 hours per day, we get 120 x 12.5 thats 1.5KW per hour or 30KW per day.  At 15 cents per KW hour, you are looking at worst case about $5 of electricity per day, per 15KBTU air conditioner, water heater ,refrigerator, etc. should all draw considerably less in Texas in the summer, a typical RV refrigerator on electric should draw about 325 watts while running though even in the summer heat the actual run time is probably less than 6 hours per day, so about 2 KWH per day or about 30 cents of electricity per day.

This discussion reminds me of the time Chris invited a friend to tie up at our dock (behind the house) and plug their boat into our 50A power (actually 2 x 50A = 100A). 4 a/c units running 24 hours a day, one of them in the "open air" cockpit, gave us a shock with our next electric bill; It was $1,000 more than the prior month, and a few $100's spilled over to the next month's bill. Part of the issue with the "incremental $1,000" month was the fact that our power company has tiered pricing; The more you use, you kick into the next higher price bracket, and so on.

I realize this is quite a different situation than the original description, but the moral of the story is that a/c units running 24 hours a day can really affect your electric bill.

Once it gets hot out, an RV a/c set to 73 isn't going to cycle off very often during the daylight hours, so you could easily be using a lot more power than you think.  The a/c alone draws about 1.5 kilowatt-hours, so in the course of a long, hot summer day it might be using 15 KWH or so.  That's $3 or so per day and would get you to the $129 bill you mentioned, but not $52 in only three days. 

You should probably request a meter check, since it is hard to credit that you are using over 100 KWH per day on a 30A connection.  You would have to be pulling the full 30A non-stop to do that, 3.6 KWH each hour, 24 hours/day. That's 86 kwh per day, not 100+

I am in central Florida with a 15k A/C running most of the time. My electricity bill for last month was $60 @ 11 cents per kw. My refer is also on 110. My water heater is propane.

A lot of utility companies have switched to tiered rates. If yours has, that would definitely contribute to the higher charges you're seeing. In the winter months, our rates are .42 cents per KWH, but in the spring and summer (where we are now) we're charged at .51 cents per KWH. For the last few years, our electric bill has routinely been more than $1000.00 per month during the summer, and that's when running the AC sparingly. I feel your pain, but believe me, it could be much worse.

Kev

Kevin - You live right by Santee Lakes Park one of my favorite bird watching spots in the country. I can't imagine paying $1000 a month for electricity. That's 20 times more than I pay and I run my A/C most all of the time.

Kevin Means said:

In the winter months, our rates are .42 cents per KWH, but in the spring and summer (where we are now) we're charged at .51 cents per KWH.

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Wow!  I have lot in an RV park in Pahrump, NV adjacent to the CA state line and people there were upset when the local utility raised it's rates from 10 cents to 12 cents per KWH last year.

Kevin Means said:

A lot of utility companies have switched to tiered rates. If yours has, that would definitely contribute to the higher charges you're seeing. In the winter months, our rates are .42 cents per KWH, but in the spring and summer (where we are now) we're charged at .51 cents per KWH. For the last few years, our electric bill has routinely been more than $1000.00 per month during the summer, and that's when running the AC sparingly. I feel your pain, but believe me, it could be much worse.

Kev

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Ouch.  Kevin, do you have SCE?  If so, I'm not moving south.  Los Angeles Department of Water & Power rate for the period ending April 25, was $.15546.  Our bill for two months of electric $120.17.  That's with a new AC unit two years ago in a house that is about as well insulated as a Home Depot storage unit. 

Tiered rates aren't meaningful in a campground situation. The campground is paying on the total amount of electric they use, not individual campsites. Further, they are paying commercial rates rather than residential.  The rate you pay in a campground is a pro-rated share based on the KWH used and does not readily compare to residential rates in that area or any other.

That's right Tom, we're only about three miles (as the crow flies) from Santee Lakes - a very nice campground.

Yeah .51 cents per KWH is one of several things that has really soured us on this region, and it's only going to get worse. We have SDG&E, and they (we) have the highest utilty rates in the country - by far. Just north of us, in Riverside County, PG&E's rates are a little more than half of what ours are. That's a bargain compared to our rates, but still far more than what most of the rest of the country pays.

Last week, after more than seven months, SDG&E finally approved our 14 KW solar system to be connected to the grid, so now our electric bill will be capped at $321.00 a month for the next 20 years (Plus a 1.9% annual increase.) I know that's still a lot, but we're dancing the happy dance around here.

Kev

Seems to me that, if your power cord plug has melted, you have a bigger problem than the electricity bill...

Kevin Means said:

That's right Tom, we're only about three miles (as the crow flies) from Santee Lakes - a very nice campground.

Yeah .51 cents per KWH is one of several things that has really soured us on this region, and it's only going to get worse. We have SDG&E, and they (we) have the highest utilty rates in the country - by far. Just north of us, in Riverside County, PG&E's rates are a little more than half of what ours are. That's a bargain compared to our rates, but still far more than what most of the rest of the country pays.

Last week, after more than seven months, SDG&E finally approved our 14 KW solar system to be connected to the grid, so now our electric bill will be capped at $321.00 a month for the next 20 years (Plus a 1.9% annual increase.) I know that's still a lot, but we're dancing the happy dance around here.

Kev

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We have a 1500 sq/ft house with 12 solar panels on the roof. We are very conservative when it come to electricity. Our monthly bill is never more than $13.00. I was told that most of that is a user fee because we are using their system to send the power back into the grid. We go to FL in the winter and turn the heat down to 55.  What I use in the winter must come from what's left over from generating in the summer.

Rene T said:

We have a 1500 sq/ft house with 12 solar panels on the roof. We are very conservative when it come to electricity. Our monthly bill is never more than $13.00. I was told that most of that is a user fee because we are using their system to send the power back into the grid. We go to FL in the winter and turn the heat down to 55.  What I use in the winter must come from what's left over from generating in the summer.

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Somewhat off topic, but what the heck... We have two meters - one for the house (4400 sq ft) and one for the barn/horse arena, which is billed separately at an agricultural rate. Agricultural rates are cheaper than residential rates. Our $1000.00 + summer electric bills don't include the agricultural meter. That's billed separately. Our electric bill for the agricultural meter alone costs us just under $40.00 per month - to power one sodium vapor light that turns itself on and off with a light sensor, and six fluorescent lights that we turn on when feeding the horses.

We converted our entire house to LED lighting, and we've replaced most of our appliances with energy efficient "Star" rated appliances, but it made virtually no noticeable difference in our monthly bills. Take notice, these massive rate hikes aren't likely to stop in San Diego.

Kev