Electricity keeps going up. Time for Kill a Watt meters?

[reefsmurf]

Anybody have one of these kill a watt meters? Group buy?

http://www.microdaq.com/p3-international/kill-a-watt/index.php

My electric bill keeps going up inexplicably. My reef lighting only totals 560 watts:

.56 KWH * .14503 /KWH * 10 hours/day * 30 days = 168 KWH/month = $24.37/month

MY BILL SAYS I'M CONSUMING 503 KWH a month!!! How is that possible.

I live in a small apt, yet my electric bill is at $80 and climbing, with no A/C, no electric heat, no in unit laundry, I rarely cook. Used to be about $30, then $50 -$60 after I started adding the tanks. Only other thing is a computer and a fridge that would have any constant draw. I can't have more than 100 watts of maxijet pumps. Baffling.

 

[NeO]

I'm not sure but I think Armando has one.

 

[PRTA79]

huh huh!

thats nothing my bill is $260-$275 per month you should be happy!!!
a few months ago my electric went up without warning me

 

[nunofs]

Was that about the same time the default service changed? I think I read something about the timing on that, but can't remember the details.

Nuno

 

[ReeferMedic]

thats nothing my bill is $260-$275 per month you should be happy!!!
a few months ago my electric went up without warning me

I'm in the same Ball Park. Mine shot up recently also......

 

[seasno]

I have one of the meters.....very cool gadget...measures KW so you can translate into $...also measures amps, so you know exactly how much power each device is comsuming.

 

[MarkO]

Well I'm in if you want to group buy?

 

[dedfish]

Can you plug a powerstrip into it and get a total everything plugged in?

 

[seasno]

Can you plug a powerstrip into it and get a total everything plugged in?

Yes you can plug the power strip into it and measure everything that is on the strip.....it does have a 15 amp limit though.

 

[NateHanson]

heaters reefsmurf?

And you're definitely doing well at $80. I have a medium sized tank ($65) and my bill is about $120.

Fortunately moving my sump to the basement didn't raise my bill any. The GenX pump is amazingly efficient. Barely using more juice than my previous Mag7!

 

[PRTA79]

test

what do you do once you find how much it costs?
i mean theres not much you really can do.
alright so you go out and buy new pumps to save maybe 10 watts each
lets say for a total of 30 watts ,thats like $5-$10 you save a month and thats on the high side so say you'll save $120 a year, but it just cost you
$250 in new pumps.
you do the math???
im sure in some conditions its worth it but not to me.
ive figured my setup costs $50-$65 per month

 

[Owen22]

You move.
Seriously, I'm not bitter over the fact that when I lived in Malden and got electric from National Grid and I paid $27-35 a month in Delivery Fee's. Now I have NSTAR. They charge me $57 a month in just delivery and line fee's. O thats right, my eleictricity use is less than the delivery chanrge. Frustraiting.