Electric bill ???

quote:
Originally posted by Billylll

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

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Actual cost without taxes is 557.10 on 1857 units, tax is 48.05
 
Walter, Our Dockominium is 56 slips with no meters but we have a lot of 40 plus power boats and a lot of large sailboats with air.
Almost every boat has 2 x 30 amp or 50/125/250 cords. Many people live aboard all summer.
The hottest summer on record here and our power bill is $7800 for 5 months or $138 per slip. Our season ends Oct 31 and I expect we will average $150 per slip for power for the whole 7 month season.
This bears a further look for sure.

Our monthly Condo fee per slip is $106 and that includes dock insurance, elecric, water, maintainance, property mangement, daily washroom/laundry cleaning and air conditioning and a healthy contribution to the reserve fund.

NOTE: You are a dockominium owner therefore your ownership should give you the right to examine the books at any reasonable time. Our condominium agreement allows this. Pretty simple to ask to see the total billings vs. the power company invoice. The management company works for you, not the other way around.
 
Holy Crap! We are not known for cheap utility costs up here, but, I guess I won't complain about our gas prices.
We have two 30amp lines for our boat. Granted, we have far less consumption than described. We pay $200. For the SEASON.

Edit: Huh. Seems consistent with Gary's info.
 
Just looked at my bill for my house.
So 3000sf house on Long Island, same utility as boat.
I pay $251 a month on average.
My summer bill was $630

If his meter is accurate, I think it's not abnormal for Long Island.
We may high rates. It's like .17 a kwh plus taxes and fees.
My house usage over summer was 3206 kwh.
That works out to .19.
I think the marina marks it up to cover the differences of other meters.
 
How old is the electric service in the marina Dave & Walter? You both mention meters not being available and a box of old meters? I am wondering if the service cables feeding the docks are causing voltage sag and hence increased current draw? Walter you mentioned having a digital voltmeter is it built in to the boats panel? If so under load what is your resting voltage? The marina I am in is also in need of infastructure work (upgrading and replacing power wires) and some dock work. I know on the other side of my marina where the majority of boats are those guys constantly trip breakers and have load management problems. On my side people hate it when I show up because I suck the available current to the trawler a few slips down from me. I pretty much push the limits of a dual 30 amp boat. In fact everything runs better when I run my 7.3kw generator but that is not a good option while at the dock only when we lose power (like tonight we have severe storms rolling through) and the odds are good we will lose power. I will probably not need the generator tonight unless it get real cold after this front blows through. Right now we are under a tornado watch. I just checked the radar the storm is only a few miles away. I would be interested to know if you have 220VAC appliances like George (CalTexFla) has on his beautiful Hatt.
George dual 220VAC feeds? Great idea I imagine you have 2 generators as well. Boats unlike houses can be real power pigs and as I have previously said they can not be compared to a house (most) unless they are a custom build or something like CalTexFla has, Charmer the boat Pascal captains and his Hatt or the big boat Captain Bill is the chief engineer on.
Bill
 
quote:
Originally posted by Billylll

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

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Billy,
Sub zero fridge and freezer is 220, I am f-ing hating this boat!!!!!!
12 volt sh$t, 24 volt sh$t, 120v, 220 sh$t, can it get any more complicated!!!!
 
Hey Walter, heres a dumb question. Can you opt for the balance billing option???
 
If its an old meter you just have to pull it out and install it upside down. just dont forget to reverse it before they come to read the meter!!
 
One 12K Btu air conditioner will draw 9 about amps. Running 2 will put that at roughly 18 amps plus one for the pump for a total of 19 amps. Doing the math at 19 amps at 120 volts at 50% duty cycle will net roughly 27Kw per day or 820Kw per month. From the sounds of things you are using less than that so I doubt that the meter is inaccurate. The issue is the cost per Kw you are paying and there is not much you can do about it.
 
I feel a lot better about my $30 electrical bill this month for our 45! :)

Actually I was pretty irritated that our June bill was $100 for that month- highest I have ever spent on a single month for a slip utility bill my entire time owning a boat. However, we pretty much lived aboard the entire month and used all systems 24/7 so really not too bad considering how much use there was that month.

Walter, you should have bought a bayliner! ;)
 
I live in a 1200 sq ft apt. My highest electric bill during the summer was $42. Cut down on the air conditioning and your bill will drop.
 
Most of Long island has very high electric rates
Up untill our current Marina, rates at LI Marinas are very high. Around $.25 per KW
Usually some sort of admin cost added to base LIPA cost and also just because they can!

One of the added reasons I moved the boat out east was savings in electric cost
We now get charged $450 flat fee for the 8 month season- down right cheap for LI!   that amount would be for a couple of months at our last Marina, which was a major ripoff & well over a $1K saving 
 
quote:
Originally posted by PascalG

"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!

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It is not necessarily true that the same power is used in 120v and 240v identical units. This is especially true if an electric motor is involved. Sometimes a 240v item can be more efficient. However, the difference will be small.

George
 
I still don't think it's wrong.
I have been on your boat Walter.
Your AC is set to freezing, it runs constantly, even set on 78 on a hot day the sun beats all day long on back of the boat.
On the back of the boat you have a fridge, ice maker, in the sun. I hear them running constantly too.
You have 2 giant sub zeros.
So on a typical hot summer day you have 2 refrigerators, 1 ice maker, 2 sub zero freezer/fridge, 2 16K AC's.
Next hot day I will videotape your meter, but the thing spins so fast it HUMS!
I think the bill is correct given the boat and the way you use power.
 
Walter......use your digital volt meter....and check the voltage ( phase to ground ).....it should be between 118v and 120v. LOW voltage will make the meter spin faster.
 
Gotta ask, why would low voltage make it spin faster? Seems opposite would happen. Remember he is 2 seperate phases too as he had them re-wire the meter so he can use the smart Y.
 
More amps and the meters read amps. I believe the current used by electric motors goes up when the voltage is low.

P.S. If you have your AC's running all the time that bill may not be all that bad.
Wait until you get the fuel bill from those bad boys.
 
Dave.....meters work on amperage draw. The higher the amperage the faster the meter spins. Low voltage causes high amperage...and high voltage cause low amperage.
 
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