this may be a weird one...

[InVeNtOr]

okay i have a ksw 12 sub. i moved into a new apartement and for most of the months living here i had a really high electric bill. after the second month of an outragous electric bill we started changing things around the house. we didn't use the ac/heat much, turned the computer off at nights, i unhooked 7.1 from the cable (the 7.1 is only on with the dvd and ps2) stuff like that. the next month the electric bill went down a little. (really not much at all). then one day i read an article on here about how much power the sub draws in On, Off, and Auto. i went back to the living room and saw the sub pluged in and the green light on. (my sub was on, but i figured it wouldn't draw much power since i am not using it). i decided to unplug it from the wall and only plug it in when watching a movie.

walah! the electric bill was cut in half. now keeping eveything constant, the only change was unplugging the sub. does this sound right? can the sub being plugged in 24/7 suck up that much power? is my sub going out? is there something wrong with it? to my knowlede it's in great working order and sounds good. has anyone had something weird like this?

[michael hurd]

I have a friend with a retarded high electrical bill.... he has no idea why. No big stereo, not even a powered sub, he cooks mostly on the BBQ when the weather is nice, and only has the TV on, with satellite reciever, sometimes the Xbox and a projector, but his bill is outrageous. Since he even does his laundry in cold water and uses the gas dryer up the street at the laundromat, there is no reason for his hydro to be $ 300 CDN + a month!

In contrast, I was paying about a third of that for a whole household, with washing machine and dryer everyday. Mind you , it was a gas hot water heater rather than an electric one. Still, he does not use a lot of hot water. Dunno, maybe the meter is out to lunch.

[InVeNtOr]

well depending on what you own and where you own it, will greatly effect your electric bill.

in my case, everything was constant and the electric bill only went down after i unpluged my powered sub. why, i don't know. i guess i could support my assumption by keeping the sub pluged in for a month, but i don't want to pay that electric bill again.

[Marvel]

If you are in an apartment complex or even a duplex, I would look to see if a neighber is piggybacked on to one of your circuits. Wouldn't be the first time that has happened. Anyone move out recently? I can't imagine the sub causing that big an issue if not actually in use. I admit it is not s Class D amp. Is is being triggered to saty ON all the time? My sub was doing that for a while until I fiddled with the input some.

Bruce

[InVeNtOr]

i do live in an apartement. i don't know if someone is piggybacking. how can you tell? i don't see any electorical cords anywhere. i would think the wiring is screwed up some how if that was the case. i always kept the sub in the On position. i didn't even try to see if Auto or Off was a better choice.

[HarryO]

High electric bill? About a year and a half ago I had some new neighbors move in upstairs. My electric bill doubled. I have a lot of electronics running constantly and didn't think much about it. Then one of my neighbors had a fire in their apartment and the Indianapolis Power and Light came and shut down the power to all the meters in our building. I received notice that my meter had been switched with the neighbor upstairs. IPL went back on the bills to when the neighbors upstairs moved in and adjusted my bill. I had over 6 months free service coming after adjustments. Apparently according to IPL this is common and something to be aware of. They have investigators just for this.

You may want to call your electric service company and have them research this for you.

HarryO

[InVeNtOr]

man sorry to hear that.

how did your meter get switched? i guess i will call my electric provider and see what they can do. rigth now i have nothing, if i call and they confirm that is still have nothing, then i lost....well nothing. i can only gain from calling.

thanks for the input. some people did move out, i am unsure if my bill shrank at the same time. i really didn't pay attention.

[HarryO]

I just payed the bill without it even crossing my mind someone could be doing something like that. Just me and my son live here but I always have audio equipment running, TV's, satellite, clocks, microwave, coffee pot, lighting, etc in use.

I watched a TV special about conserving energy not long ago and the hosts were talking about all the wasted energy through the lights and LEDs of all the appliances on stand by mode constantly running. They claimed these alone could account for up to 25% of total electricity usage

In my apartment building there are 4 meters per service box. The gentlemen upstairs are construction workers from out of town. All they had to do was loosen the retaining bands on the meters, pull and switch meters, tighten the bands, and I'm paying their bill. The meters are read and billed by number.

I've made an effort to reduce my energy consumption in the last few months by using higher quality/lower wattage bulbs, changed to battery operated clocks where practical, and just trying to not waste energy where possible. I've cut my power consumption by nearly 40% and haven't lost any comforts at all.

Good luck figuring it all out.

HarryO

[michael hurd]

I am sure you would be shocked to find that most people that rent out to tenant's have found something to hang on the tenant's meter, especially in a house setting. Seperate meter, seperate entrance, and the tenant is paying to plug the cars in in the winter and also the air conditioning bill in the summer! My sister-in-law was renting an older apartment. Her bill was cut to almost half moving across the city, with the same appliances. Same washer / dryer, same stove, fridge, computer, tv, etc. Nothing changed except the address. Electric hot water heater in both apartments.

Go figure![:|] Older freezers and fridges can be an energy hog, especially if the insulation has gotten damp, it may run non-stop.

[JJkizak]

Changing the meters and paying your neighbors bill----that's assuming your neighbor is drawing more juice than you are. If it is the opposite then I would assume the meter would be changed back rather quickly. And of course it is the same service---100 amp, 150 amp, 200 amp, as these use different size contacts on the back.

JJK

[mikebse2a3]

i do live in an apartement. i don't know if someone is piggybacking. how can you tell?

I'm not sure how likely the above is but you should be able to turn your main breaker off and the power utility meter should stop registering any power usage. You might also look at the specification info on your sub and see if it list the standby power usage.

mike tn

[Islander]

i do live in an apartement. i don't know if someone is piggybacking. how can you tell? i don't see any electorical cords anywhere. i would think the wiring is screwed up some how if that was the case. i always kept the sub in the On position. i didn't even try to see if Auto or Off was a better choice.

Why wouldn't you set your sub to Auto? It'll turn itself on when it senses a signal and off after it senses no signal for a while, five to fifteen minutes in most cases. There's no point in leaving your sub powered all night, or while you're at work.

[DrWho]

I believe one of the Klipsch engineers mentioned that the Auto function, when in the "off" mode draws nearly the same amount of power as when the sub is in the on position. It kinda makes sense because an efficient amp (which is required when it's mounted on the sub) isn't going to draw much power when there is no input signal. When in the auto position, the front electronics are still going to be running full steam so that it can detect the signal when it comes on. I would imagine that the front-end will actually draw more power than the amplifier at idle.

[ByteWrangler]

I've made an effort to reduce my energy consumption in the last few months by using higher quality/lower wattage bulbs, changed to battery operated clocks where practical, and just trying to not waste energy where possible. I've cut my power consumption by nearly 40% and haven't lost any comforts at all.

Nothing wrong with battery-powered clocks, but I can't see switching to them saving money or energy; after all, it takes energy to manufacture (and package, transport and market) batteries, and you also have to dispose of them. I consider $.50 each a pretty good price for alkaline AA cells, and one typically lasts about a year in a quartz wall clock. Based on my last power bill, at $.08/kWh, fifty cents buys 6.25 kWh of electricity. Since there are an average of 8766 hours in a year, if a plug-in clock uses 0.7 W to run, it would consume 6136 Wh (6.136 kWh) per year and about break even in operating cost. I doubt that a wall clock uses close to that - probably a tiny fraction of a Watt. Even if the batteries were free and a plug-in clock used a full Watt, you're talking cents per year. Peanuts. YMMV.

Switching to high-efficiency lights, OTOH, and just shutting lights and appliances off when not in use, can have a huge impact in power consumption, with little or no impact on comfort.

[Islander]

Replacing worn-out weatherstrips around sliding windows made my home less drafty, more cosy, and improved the sound of my system by lowering the noise floor. Traffic and street noise was less than half what it was with the drafty windows. Putting weatherstrip all the way around the entrance door allows me to play music louder and still have it inaudible in the hallway.

I have all-electric heat and the hydro savings can be as much as $50 a month in cold weather.

As well, the Heritage speakers can be seen as the green choice in that they use less power and they're made of non-exotic wood that hasn't been transported long distances.

[PhilMays]

Are you sure it is not associated with power in the Springtime? Spring and Fall always have the lower electric bills. Even if you have gas heat, it uses electric fans to move the air.

My utility bills at our hotels usually run in the 8K to 10K range in the summer and winter and 5K to 6K in the Spring and Fall.

[boom3]

Two points not yet mentioned:

1. Your meter reader may be estimating/guesstimating the meter reading. That practice is only valid if they cannot get to the meter because of barriers or bad dogs. Call your elec co and demand an in-person meter reading, preferably while you are there. I've had to do this because my meter reader was goofing off rather than reading the meters for our entire street.

2. You also can demand a recorder be attached to your line. This creates a physical record of demand vs. time for some period, usally 24 hrs.

[Guest BobG]

For a subwoofer to consume half of your total energy bill would mean the power is going somewhere. If the sub is not playing, then the energy it's suspected of consuming must be converted to heat or light or some other form as energy cannot be created or destroyed. So, unless your sub is blazing hot or bright enough to read by, it is not the cause of your abnormal bill.

[WMcD]

I think it is an error by the electric company. I'll tell you my story.

I was living at the old apartment for several years with somewhat steady bills. Then one January one came in from Com Ed which was 5 times normal. I immedately checked for a possible drain. Nothing. I didn't even put up Christmas lights.

So I called Com Ed and the nice lady said it was probably a meter reading error. Their computer records showed the previous winter I'd be frugal too. But they would not send out anyone to check that day because they'd be by in a couple of weeks. I paid the bill 'cause I didn't want the juice shut off.

Next bill comes. About the same. This time it was an estimated reading which, naturally, was based on the previous reading. I paid again.

The next month they took an actual read off the meter and I had a credit worth about 10 months of "free" electricity.

I got used to opening a bill and seeing: "Please pay this amount: $0.00." Now I hate that it has gone back to normal.

My latest scheme to beat the electric company is to get on every junk mail list in the U.S.A. and use the paper as fuel.

Gil

[kelA]

I think it is an error by the electric company. I'll tell you my story.

I was living at the old apartment for several years with somewhat steady bills. Then one January one came in from Com Ed which was 5 times normal. I immedately checked for a possible drain. Nothing. I didn't even put up Christmas lights.

So I called Com Ed and the nice lady said it was probably a meter reading error. Their computer records showed the previous winter I'd be frugal too. But they would not send out anyone to check that day because they'd be by in a couple of weeks. I paid the bill 'cause I didn't want the juice shut off.

Next bill comes. About the same. This time it was an estimated reading which, naturally, was based on the previous reading. I paid again.

The next month they took an actual read off the meter and I had a credit worth about 10 months of "free" electricity.

I got used to opening a bill and seeing: "Please pay this amount: $0.00." Now I hate that it has gone back to normal.

My latest scheme to beat the electric company is to get on every junk mail list in the U.S.A. and use the paper as fuel.

Gil

I am going through the same deal with the water company. I swear does anybody actually work for these companies anymore as far as meter readers? My last bill was $125, when it normally ran $24-30. I am curious as to see what they estimate my usage to be this next billing cucle. Ridiculi.