Why has my electric bill doubled The power company blames it on a broken water heater.My hot water is find Anyone got any ideas.?

Answer 1

Find your electric meter in your house or apartment. You should be able to see the dial spinning.

Go around your house and turn off all the lights, the computers, the TV, all your appliances. For TVs and electronic gadgets that have an "instant on" feature, you may need to unplug them. Unplug the refrigerator. Turn the temperature of the water heater way down if it is electric.

Check your power meter again. It should be stopped. If it's still moving, then something is still draining power. Check to make sure that a neighbor hasn't plugged in an extension cord into your outlets.

Once your meter is stopped, you know that you aren't drawing any power. Now plug the fridge back in, and check the meter. Then, one item at a time, plug in or turn on each device, and check the meter. You may find that one particular device causes the meter to jump; that's probably the culprit.

One other thing to check; if your water heater is electric, it may have built up a layer of insulating sludge at the bottom of the tank. There ought to be a hose fitting of some kind near the bottom; that's the tank drain. Screw in a garden hose. Turn the temperature way down, and let the tank cool. Run the garden hose outside, and SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY open the drain. Don't force it; if the tank has never been drained, it may be stuck, and you aren't trying to BREAK the heater, just to DRAIN it.

Let it drain a few gallons or until the water runs clear. Close the drain, and turn the temperature back up. it should heat up while using much less power.