Etydhv

I would like to know how to understand my digital
Home electrical meter?

This picture shows what my home meter CURRENTLY reads. I intend to unplug everything in my tiny apartment in order to get another read.

My reason?

My apartment consists of 1 SINGLE room, a kitchen, and a TINY Bathroom. That's it. Nothing else. Yet my electric bill is upwards of 370.00 a month. I calculated it should be no more than 190 at its higheat possible amount. I believe my downstairs neighbors might be using electric (unknowingly) from my electrical supply.

My entire aparrment is so small it only has 6 TOTAL outlets..

1. My refrigerator & a bedside alarm clock for time of day viewing


2. Nothing


3. An unused toaster, I have used it 3 times in a year


4. A microwave that gets used 10 minutes a month if that, otherwise only displaying the time of day on the front


5. Nothing

Outlet 6 is the "big one" lol

A. 32" LED smart TV
B. A ps4
C. Cell phone charger
D. Your regular every day home stand up lamp (100wt bulb)

Extras:
hot water heater which I believe is gas.

And depending on the season:
Winter: 1 single electric baseboard heater JUST ONE in the entire apartment 5 feet long.
Summer: 1 single 6000btu air conditioner

Thats it. Even if everything used to excess I calculated less than 190 a month yet my bill is nearly twice that. What I personally want to know is if something is going on that Idk about, currently all I want to do is unplug everything and check the meter while that is going on. It Will take a whooping 10 minutes to do lol

Can someone tell me what those numbers mean on the display? Should it read almost 0000 if I unplug everything, i even plan on unplugging my fridge, everything..

Please help, I Need to find cause to get my landlord to act, I could loose my place to live over this please help.

They're kilowatt hours. If you use 1000 watts for 1 hour it'll add one to the current number displayed.

It's like an odometer on your car. It only counts up, and will never be at 0 except when it was brand new.

Where is your neighbors meter? If you can't find a second one, chances are you're paying for their power too.

If your neighbor has their own meter, they will have their own circuit breaker panel too. If they're separate, then just turn off your breakers randomly and see if it affects your neighbor. If he complains that his heat or fridge keeps turning off then you know it's on your electrical service.

Best time to turn them off would be when they're home and trying to cook. That way they'll notice if their oven or fridge loses power.

If there is only one meter, then don't turn any breakers off. You're definitely paying for both if there is only one meter.

@Dotes suggestion for detecting whether any of your circuit breakers serves equipment for the neighbors is a good one.

There's a web page which describes how to read instantaneous current through an Itron meter. The meter model there is not the same model as in your picture, but they appear to be from the same family and are likely to display similarly. In a nutshell it says this: the three squares in the lower right corner of the display show an animation corresponding to power consumption. Each time one of these squares changes light to dark or dark to light it represents 1 Wh consumed.

It stands to reason that you could turn off or disconnect everything in your apartment and then watch these squares on the meter for several minutes to see whether power is still being consumed. If it is, start turning off breakers until you identify the circuit where the power draw happens. Then evaluate whether you can make do with that circuit left permanently turned off.

The photo seems to show another meter to the left of the one pictured. How did you determine which meter is yours? I assume they're labeled by address or unit number. Your electric bill may have the meter number printed on it. I suggest you confirm the number on the bill matches the number on the meter face -- or whether it matches one of the other meters instead.

When you do the power consumption test watch the animation on the other meters too. If the "wrong" meter shows zero power consumption, or if you're not able to match up numbers between your bill and the meter you believe is yours, then call the utility and ask for their help in confirming that your account is paying for consumption on the correct meter. I imagine it's a rare thing for the billing to get crossed, but it must not be impossible.

Find your breaker panel and turn off every breaker (except the main). The meter should register no increase even after an hour. If it is still counting up, you have a problem.

Turn on one breaker and see what comes on, then turn it off and do that again for the next one. After you have done that for all of your breakers, see if there are any that you cannot identify. If there are, leave them off. If your neighbor complains about things not working in their house, you have found the issue. If they were PURPOSELY stealing electricity, they will not say a word, but your power bill will go down. If that's the case, call the utility and report the theft, let them deal with it.

If you find nothing either way, then most likely you are calculating something incorrectly, but I don't think so. You don't say where you are or what rate you pay, but I am in California where the rates are the highest in the nation (37 cents/kWH) and my 1500 sq. ft. house is costing me half as much as you are reporting. So something is definitely wrong. Normally my first suspect is the water heater, because a faulty thermostatic switch can result in it running continuously by venting excess hot water through the blow-off safety valve. But you say it's gas? Are you sure? Can you see a gas valve on the side of it and do you get a gas bill? It would be unusual for an apartment to have electric baseboard heat, but a gas water heater. It's expensive to run a gas line to a residence, so they (the gas company) will not do it unless the space heater and stove is gas too, because a water heater alone doesn't make them enough money.

Air conditioning uses quite a lot of power; varies of course, but you've quoted a capacity of 6000btu - a weird use of units - BTU = British Thermal Units.

On maximum, that's about 1.75KW each & every hour.

How much heat do you use in winter? - that's normally the major cost.

In the UK, its normal to be charged a fixed daily rate to cover the cost of providing the supply plus an amount related to your power consumption.