Can shorted out or grounded wires cause super high electric bills?

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tracyballard

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Our house, built in 1960, was repaired and remodeled by the previous owner and a lot of his work is very substandard, or worse. We would like to redo our plumbing and electrical systems, but we can barely afford food right at the moment, since I make less money during the last part of the year, and I'm trying to finish my bachelors degree. Our electric bill used to be around $300 in the summer, and $100-150 in the winter, varying in the months in between. But lately the last few months our bill has been over $400, $421 the last month, and it's been pretty cool here. We only have window ac units and haven't been using them very much. The area of concern I have is our kitchen The outlets used to spark when you plugged or unplugged something, until half the outlets in our kitchen went dead about a year ago. We haven't been able to fix this or even get anyone to look at it due to money, and I'm afraid our house is going to burn down someday because of this. But other than the fire danger, could this actually be the reason our bill is so high? Could it be that there is electricity draining away to ground or worse, and using up tons of power? I'm going to try shutting off each individual breaker to see if it slows down our meter - right now it's spinning at one revolution every 3 seconds. Any ideas? (other than to call an electrician - we would if there was any way). I've never done any household electrical work, but I am a pretty good auto mechanic and I have plenty of tools if that helps. thanks guys!
 

Jadnashua

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If there were an actual short to ground, the circuit breaker or fuse should trip. But, if there's a resistive connection (think of it like a heating element), it might just heat things up. Depending on where that was, it could easily start a fire, but it's a matter of extent and quantity.

So, your idea of turning off circuit breakers then turning them on one-by-one to see where the big load is, is a good idea. I'd first go around and unplug anything with a plug, and turn off things that can't be unplugged. Then, essentially, there should be NO current flowing. Turn things on, see if any one thing causes the meter to start to turn and you'll have isolated it to at least that circuit. If you can get everything back on and not see a major jump in the meter rotation, then, start plugging things back in one at a time.

A stalled motor can draw a fair amount of power. Do you have a well? This is one thing where it's much easier if you're there to try to figure out.
 

Reach4

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Our electric bill used to be around $300 in the summer, and $100-150 in the winter, varying in the months in between. But lately the last few months our bill has been over $400, $421 the last month, and it's been pretty cool here.
Do you have a well?
 

Jadnashua

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If you know someone that has an inductive, clamp-on ammeter, that would help isolate what branch(es) are drawing power and how much. I have no idea is this is a good one or not, but to give you an idea what one looks like, check this link.

https://www.etekcity.com/product/100121

You hook it around ONE conductor to measure how much current is passing through that wire. It won't work if you say put it around a power cord to something, since the power in would cancel the power returning, and it should read zero.
 
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WorthFlorida

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If you have a well and the pump motor seized you would have no water. If you have pool pump it be only running when the timer calls for it. However, in IL you probably have a sump pump in the floor of the basement for water run off. If this is seized it would have power to it all the time until the water drops enough to open the float switch. Not necessarily that water would rise enough to get above the basement floor without the pump motor working.
 

Kreemoweet

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If half the outlets in my kitchen suddenly went dead, I'd start looking for a tripped GFCI outlet or breaker.
It's perfectly normal for a turned-on device to spark when plugged in. That's not good for either the plug
or the outlet, so it's always best to make sure whatever you're plugging in is not turned on until after
the plug is connected. Sparking can and will also trip GFCI devices.
 

hj

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If the wire has a "load" such as being immersed in a pool of water, (or a shorted out water heater element), it WOULD conduct electricity 24 hours a day and the amount used would depend on the resistance of the water, which might get warm or hot depending on how big the pool is.
 
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