Years ago I lived in a duplex in Santa Cruz and paid an astronomical amount of money for my electricity each month. Far more than I ever paid when living in Los Angeles. This went on for around eight months before I finally decided to figure out what was pulling so much power.
I systematically went around my house unplugging everything, watching the speed of the meter as I unplugged each heavy duty appliance, but that meter kept on spinning like no tomorrow.
Eventually I had unplugged everything all at once, and yet the meter kept on spinning. So then I said, fine, circuit breakers, let’s start shutting parts of it down until I figure this out.
Didn’t take more than a few minutes before the neighbour to come ask if my power was out too. And that’s when I talked to the utility company.
In our Los Angeles condo, our electricity bill is around $350 to $400 (summer peak with AC) per month. Yet for the past three months our consumption has steadily risen, with no change in our habits or installed equipment, with our largest bill ever, and largest consumption ever, to date being over $650 for the month, for two month’s straight. And a circuit breaker that suspiciously keeps tripping.
I’m not saying “neighbours” but tonight I’m flipping circuit breakers.