Electricity use consultants?

A licensed electrician can come out to your place and provide that information. As far as the hill incurred while you were off island, it was likely an estimated bill based on previous usage and will be adjusted when the next reading is done - not uncommon at all.

If the house is unoccupied, you could still have all kinds of things running, like a fridge, pool pump, security lights, TV in stand-by mode, etc.

If you absolutely don't need anything on for the month, then switch off the main breaker. After seeing your new low, low bill, WAPA may even come out and change your meter afterwards, thinking it's broken.

An electrician can generally sort out what's running up your bill. If you want to nail it down further, you can install a whole home electricity monitor, like the eMonitor reviewed here: http://www.mapawatt.com/2011/02/25/emonitor-energy-monitor-review

Good Day,

I work as Energy Manager for the Virgin Island National Guard, and suggest you take the following actions to determine your energy usage:

Step 1
START READING your meter. I suggest to friends when you trying to figure out your energy usage, you MUST become more aware of what's impacting your usage. For instance, each day you are reading the usage is, 10, 10, 11, 13, 18................18 flags something different for that day.

What did I do yesterday that might have impacted my usage? It was Sunday, Sunday is laundry day----you used the electric dryer. Another spike in a daily usage could be a electric weed whacker. and of course air conditioner.

What could have caused it to go up to 13. 13 reading was Saturday, home ---more activity, fridge opening, hot water use for cleaning, more fans and AC on, more TV, etc...................

By reading your own meter starting immediately, you are verifying WAPA staff reading. When you get your bill you can see the time period , and almost verify WAPA reading and if you don't know WAPA read the meter, you already have the data logged in via your daily reading.

I take a digital picture every day when I am verifying my meter reading----and once went to WAPA when my reading was incorrect, showed them the picture and my daily reading and still denied reduction , until I talked to a supervisor, who after 1 day called me and apologized for the inconvenience-----------AND REDUCED my bill immediately by $250 dollars.

Step 2 Make sure you ceiling fans are turning the right direction:

Ceiling Fan Direction in Summer – Forward / Counter Clockwise

AND----only put fan on when you are in room. Go to WAPA web site for explanation, a fan create a wind, and after running for a minute, will give you the same effect as running for the last hour.

Step 3 Walk around you house and see what you have plugged in---everything with a light on, probably costing you .26 cent to .50 a day just to keep plugged in---if not used much, unplug or power strip.

NOT USING, shut it off.

taking step 1 thru 3 you have:
COST TO YOU DOLLARS====ZERO TIME= 3- 4 hours

If the steps above will be an inconvenience and your NOT willing to do, STOP here , read no more. You are excepting your WAPA bill every month, PAY and complain, instead of having $5 to $15 to spend on yourself, AND staring to take control of your usage and have documents and evidence to dispute your bill

.If you care and what some tips to reduce--------------continue reading.

Step 4 Purchase 1-2 Kilowatt meters at Home Depot, hardware store, generally $35-$50 dollars. First usage of meter I would do your refrigerator , average $35-60 dollars a month if not ENERGY STAR. Do for seven days, and than average the total by 7 days.

Step 3 What are you other major users, Air Conditioner, Hot Water Heater, Electric Stove???? Do one room at a time, since you are doing your fridge, stay in kitchen. Have microwave? Use the other usage meter, for 3-4 days. Coffee pot? Water Cooler?

Once you take responsibility and understand your usage, you will REDUCE. For instance, INNOVATIVE, DISH boxes generally cost you $20 per month in electricity. Have 2, you are using almost the same amount every month to run a fridge. What can you do to reduce this usage. Power strip the cable boxes, done using, power down the box. Negative, it would take minute to two to reboot. Another option is if you have Innovative, ask for the slim box, smaller, and cost about $5.00 a month of electricity.

Have internet? Power strip the box, and when you are done using---power off.

Have TV/DVR, stereo, again power strip and when not using, power off.

Microwave? Power down and turn on when you need to use.

Plug you internet into power strip, $50 to 75 cents a day savings. Broadband kicks right back on, even my 5 year old grandson said as we were leaving one day, GRAMPS, you forgot to shut off the internet.

Water Heater?? Put on timer or shut off after using. We turn on ours when we first get up, around 500AM, by 600AM plenty of hot water for showering and bathing. Leave for work, we shut off. Your water heater will use anywhere from $45-80 a month, doing steps I recommend you will reduce to $30-$50.

I have assisted a few friends to determine usage, and generally just power items into power strips will reduce bill $25-$35 a month-----better to spend it on RUM, than give it to WAPA, or treat yourself, I like the RUM, and in theory hoping Im helping VI , as more RUM sold, more rum excise tax returned to VI government.

An AC will cost $5 to $15 a day. If you can't meter, private message me the make, model, serial number, and SEER rating, and I can figure out cost to run.

Lastly, GO to the federal government ENERGY STAR website. After spending about an hour, you will see the value of buying ENERGY STAR products, compared to non energy star(Energy Star products used in house include refrigerators (ie save $10-$30 a month by purchasing ENERGY STAR), TVs(save $5 to $10 a month depending on your usage), ceiling fans( save $2-$5 a month), washer (save $5 to $15), dryer (save $10-25---------------GO propane if you can).

Here is an example for purchasing Energy Star---you will SEE BLUE label on box when you are purchasing.

Ceiling Fans Cost Non Energy Star $90 to $200
Home depots energy star ceiling fans cost maybe $10-15 more
Use the fan 8 hours a day, you will save $2 - $3 dollars a month-----per fan

Lets say the energy star fan cost you $15 more, in 5 months @ $3 saving per month pays for itself. After 5 months, you have reduced you WAPA bill by $3 a month for the life of the ceiling fan----5 years? ==============$180 saving

I hope this helps, and anyone who has any questions on usage of piece of equipment, feel free to private message me, if I can help, I will.

Thanks for all the great tips. I already shut everything not in use, off or unplug, have everything on power strips and religiously turn off when not in use and got one timer for the apt. water heater. I even have the electronic ballast for the propane stove on a strip! No need to keep microwave, toaster, toaster oven, etc. plugged in when only used once a day. Forget plug in alarm clocks! Need one more water heater timer for main house but inch by inch, will get more done. My bill is always higher in the summer due to A/C usage so look forward to it cooling down when Fall hits and the A/C is turned off until it gets too hot to bear, again. Usually by end of May.

Will have to check out reading meter regularly. The actions I have already taken, have significantly reduced my bill. Wish I could do without the A/C completely but not an option unless I rotate the house and move it higher up the hill!

When I do not have vacation or rental guests in residence, I turn off all the rental apt. breakers until the next guests arrive. Makes a big difference.

For what it's worth, because it does not really answer the original question, I keep everything plugged-in on either a light switch than I can turn off when I leave, or a strip outlet, to do the same. No reason to give inefficient WAPA any more than they deserve.

is someone borrowing your electric? it has been known to happen

is someone borrowing your electric? it has been known to happen

I would say more like "stealing", if that does end up being the case.

Especailly InnAtPelicanHeights, that is a wealth of information! Really appreciate all the time you took to spell it all out. We're not lazy, and are happy to spend the time and small cost to get to the bottom of this. There is one refrigerater that "seems like" it is constantly running, so that could be an issue, it could be stealing too I suppose.

I'm surprised to hear a room AC unit would only be 5-15 a day. We're pretty religious about not using AC, as we have good breezes. But while we were off island it should have just been 2 fridges and a pool pum and security system that were operating.

It is also possible that someone was living in my house while I was gone without my knowledge. Will be investigating that possibility too.

Thanks again to all of your for the replies.

Check the dates on your bill. The billing cycle is usually for a month or so before you think it is.

Also, your bill could be estimated. If for some reason the meter man could not get to your meter, they estimate it.