Electric bill ???

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walterv

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My electric bill at my marina is out of control we have metered slips. I am not sure if the meter is wrong (new meter, may not be new but new to me)

I have twin 30 amp circuits that are on two separate phases, then I am using a Smart Y to convert to 50 amp 240V. They bill us quarterly and my bills with sales tax are 600 a quarter.

My boat is a Silverton 45C, 2007. All I leave on in the boat when I am not there is 2of the 4 AC units, Sub Zero Fridge, Sub Zero Freezer, small cockpit fridge, small fridge on the bridge, 3 battery chargers, ice maker in the cockpit.

My last boat 2004 34C the electric bill was around $230.00 a quarter
What I left on all the time in this boat was:
Salon fridge and freezer (single tall Norcold), two battery charges, 1 of the two AC units

Both boats, I kept the AC at 78 in the summer.

So here are some questions.
Could this boat use three times the power as my old boat?
How can I check to see if the meter is accurate?
I am being told on the invoice I used 1,857 units of power, what is the name for a "unit" of power and how does that relate to amps drawn ???
I have a digital amp and voltage meter on the boat. I was thinking I could use that and then math to figure out if the meter is accurate.

The power post at our dock are very old, and I know they were having problems getting replacement meters, They have a box of used meters and I am thinking this is what they used. The old boat had a different meter.

Thanks
Walter
 
Power is measured in KWH (kilo watts per hour). 1 KW is about 8 to 9amps but let say 10amps. If you are drawing an average of 10amps depending on how all the refrigeration cycles on and off, that would be 24KWH a day, or about 2200 KWH a quarter

I m guessing what they call is unit of power is KWH. 600 dollars for 1857 KWH would be about $0.3 per KWH. compare to your home bill and see if that's fair.
 
You need to see what the kwh charges are. It doesn't seem that far off to me Walter if you spend plenty of time on your boat. If you have a hardtop I would strongly suggest and highly recommend installing 3 to 4 200 watt Kyocera solar panels and a smart controller to suppliment your 12VDC charging and needs. This is one of the main reasons I have recently upgraded from 450 watts to 600 watts of solar to be able to handle all of my 12VDC needs including refrigeration of food without any AC voltage to recharge if needed. This is more my end of the life as we knew it scenario where I can make water using 12VDC, watch satellite TV via 12VDC, all of my WiFi, switches and cellular modems are 12VDC. I can treat waste with 12VDC. Your really never going to run air conditioning off of 12VDC in a boat your size or mine. This was one of the hotest summers in the history of weather records as well.
Bill
 
That is $50 a month more than I pay for my 1900 s/f house here in MD. Something is not working correctly IMHO. Ask for your quarterly invoice for the last year. See how many unit you used in each of the previous three quarters back to the same quarter last year. Note if there is an increase in temps during that time. My electric at the boat jumped from 30 in April to 60, 80, 95, and then 165 in August. My refer failed shortly after that.
 
That is about what I pay for my 2,400 sq ft house in the summer. My house is all electric.

Something is wrong with that bill or else your KWH charges are very high. Pascal figured 30 cents per KWH. That is extremely high.

George
 
Houses are generally better insulated then most boats. I do not believe you can even compare the two. How many AC units are on your boat Walter? I have (2) 16,000BTU units for the interior that ran almost 24/7 at about 70% duty cycle this past summer. My 15,000BTU upper helm AC unit only runs when I am cruising on the generator. My house AC doesn't run even 60% of the time during the peak heat of the day. Also I believe but could be wrong marine based AC units are not very efficiant. Also be careful utility bills in general are on the rise due to new EPA regulations. Your boat has 220VAC for a reason any conversion is a loss in efficiantcy it might be less expensive if you have 220VAC installed at your slip then trying to convert it with adapters. Also boats unlike houses for the most part don't have double paned windows or much insulation what is the R factor of your boat vs your home?
Bill
 
Had a similar problem in my old marina after they had installed new meters - our sailboat used very little ac power - yet our bill was the highest on the dock. We were able to prove we were being overcharged by unplugging everything - and seeing the meter still running! Other than meter inaccuarcy - could someone be plugging in to your meter?
 
That is very high Walter. I use LIPA as well.That is a lot more than my house electric bill.I would say something is wrong. If its the marina's meter and not LIPA's i would really question it. I actually didn't think anyone could meter electric other than the electric company.
 
That doesn't sound right - I don't pay much more than that for my all electric house (approx 3000sqft) with two heatpumps. Get the kwh and compare to your house. My bill for our house last month (hot in Charlotte) was $175.94, that's 1,734kwh at .10 each.
 
How many more cubic feet is the 45C new boat compared to the 34C boat Walter? It seems to me you have doubled your AC use, tripled your frig/ freezer use you have added an ice maker and an additional battery charger. Welcome to the bigger boat experiance and the new world of escalating utility bills (which are only going to get worse). These appliances are all power hogs. You mention $600 plus taxes what is the total for taxes and non kwh usage charges? I really think nothing is wrong other then you live in NY we both live in states where everything including utilities cost more.
I still think the adapter is wasting power but I could be wrong.
Bill
 
Wow, I've kept my boat at three marinas in this area and never been charged for electrical, even at the marinas where electrical is supposed to be separate. I'm guessing they don't charge you if you use little, I'm not sure. But I only leave the battery charger and the (small) fridge on during the work week so I'm sure I don't use much.
 
You picked up the boat in April. We got a bill for Q2 April, May, June.
What was that bill?
Is this bill for 1 quarter or 2. If it is 2, then that is about right.
When I had my Ac's set to 78 I ran about $100 a month.
Now I use hunidity control setting and it's much lower.

Also you had that battery issue, perhaps the charger was running too much.

Have them test the meter.

Your boat is definately a power hog. It's using 240v where mosts boats user 120v.
Your boat is like turning on an electric dryer and running it forever!
 
By the way, I looked at my numbers from last year when I had a issue.
They said I used 1138kwh and the bill was $338.70
If I do the math, it is .30 a kwh. So that is what they charge us.
The problem is that is not what electric company charges.
What they do is they take bill, they take all meter readings and then they divide it.
So if some guy has a meter that is not working, we eat his charge in our charge!
 
"Your boat is definately a power hog. It's using 240v where mosts boats user 120v. "

Voltage is not relevant... The reason for 240v shore power is that you can run some 240v appliances and also have or safety margin in the cord vs using 2 30 amps. Often those 30amp cords will be running near capacity whereas a 240/120-50 will have some margin. And obviously a 16k btu 120v compressor will use exactly the same amount of power than a 16k BTU 240v unit

Marinas do mark up the power, sometimes reasonably, sometimes not so reasonably!
 
I've got a 2400 SF house in VA. I'm on the budget plan with my power company so my bill is $135 a month all year which would be $405 per quarter.
 
quote:
Originally posted by RumDiet

Had a similar problem in my old marina after they had installed new meters - our sailboat used very little ac power - yet our bill was the highest on the dock. We were able to prove we were being overcharged by unplugging everything - and seeing the meter still running! Other than meter inaccuarcy - could someone be plugging in to your meter?

Click to expand...


+1. Are you in a new slip? Somebody may be spliced into your power, mistakenly or not. Stranger things have happened.
 
Actually if Walter could run real 240 or 220VAC he would have more efficent use assuming his large appliances are 220VAC? If they are not then there would be no real savings.
Is the power panel just a split 120VAC panel Walter or are some appliances or the AC units 220VAC?
Bill
 
I dont think they can charge you a higher rate than LIPA charges. I know you guys own your slips and its some sort of co-op but looks like they are making money on you.
 
+1 on the dehumidification mode. No need to run Ac all the time unless you live aboard. I also only use dehum mode in high humidity times. Not necessary early and late in season.. Perhaps it's time to go back to a 36C. :)
 
Walter, for reference, I have a much bigger boat than yours, volume wise, plus we are here in hot and humid North Carolina and live on board. We have two 50 amp 240 lines feeding the boat. Our galley has full sized all electric household appliances including a fairly large Sub Zero side by side refrigerator, a dishwasher, washer / dryer and so on. We spent 10 days of August out cruising, at anchor each night, so 20 days hooked up. Used 1063 "units".. say about 50 a day. So not knowing your exact use of the boat, I can't say your numbers sound all that far off to me at 600 a month, 20 or so a day assuming you spent the whole quarter tied to the dock, there in a cooler climate. I won't aggravate you and tell you what our per unit charge is.
 
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