So last month I went about trickle charging some batteries. When I got the power bill it was shocking! went up from about $130 to $205. Is that possible or maybe I have other issues? Seem's kind of unbelievable, does it not?

What makes you think it is all the charging?
Not sure I would believe it.

other than an occasional grow light on some tomato starts nothing else is different that I can discern.

I'd look to the grow light before the trickle charger. I'm not an electrician, but it should be a question of math. Figure out the batteries capacity and how many were charged and that would be the total power used to do it.

I run a dual-bank and a single trickle charger all winter plus a dehumidifier and a fridge and my average power use is about $30-45 per month. The dehumidifier is by far the big user. On weeks when humidity is low, my usage is less than a dollar a day. Way less.

You either changed something else, have a water heater or blower that is jacked up, or you have some budget-bill type of adjustment going on.

Unless the batteries could start a D-10, I don't think the charger is the problem.

I assume 2 amps is the charging current for a 12V car battery?

Charging voltage is ~14.6V. 14.6 V * 2 A = 29.2 Watts. Let's say the efficiency of the charger is 50%, so it draws 60 watts of power from the wall.

There are 24*30=720 hours in a month.

60 watts * 720 hours = 43,200 Wh or 43.2 kWh.

Given a kWh generally costs about $0.10, you're looking at about $4 to run a 2 amp trickle charger continuously pushing 2 amps (is the 2A a maximum and the current drops when the battery is fully charged?) for a month.

Not a chance a "trickle" charger pulls that much juice unless it's damaged/bad.

Could they have not read your meter for a month or two billed you an estimated amount and then read it and realized you owed some?

I don't see a charger doing a trickle charge doing it. Something else is likely the issue.

No. It doesn't cost $75 a month to run a trickle charger. Running big motors for long periods of time does. My 1.5HP pool pump running 8 hours a day costs about $40 a month. Running the heat pump pool heater the same 8 hours costs about $60 a month. Running both A/C units costs about $150 a month in summer.

Do you have a sump pump? Well pump? Heat pump?

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:
Could they have not read your meter for a month or two billed you an estimated amount and then read it and realized you owed some?

I don't see a charger doing a trickle charge doing it. Something else is likely the issue.

This.

Are any of your electric bills estimated? Sometimes if they are the estimates were significantly low and when the meter is read you then pay the extra.
Small battery charger should come no where close to using that much electricity. Electric space heaters use a lot of amperage if anything like that was used. You can buy a Kill a Watt meter to see what an actual electrical device uses in watts/amps.

https://www.amazon.com/P3-P440...a-306572288073&psc=1

During the winter months I run a trickle charger for 2 batteries plus 2 heat tapes on outdoor water pipes and the electric cost is only about 6-8 dollars a month higher than in the warmer months when the air conditioner isn't running. The air conditioner cost is about 15-20 per month.
Something is out of whack with your bill!

Jim

Alien craft hoovering yer electricicles while yous sleep...

My average energy bill is around $175.00 per month. (I reside in Commiefornia where everything is ridiculously expensive) One month, the bill was over $400.00! We hadn't done anything different that month, so we contacted our energy supplier. The first woman we spoke with was a product of Affirmative Action, so we got no where. We called back, and the second person we spoke with asked us to go to the meter and record the readings while she waited. We did that, and she apologized profusely, and explained that someone had written down the wrong numbers. We received a massive credit.

You’ve got other issues. No way the trickle charger used that much power.

Were you charging a flux capacitor?

Thanks guys, I talked with them. Definitely a spike. Estimated for march and read this month. This bill makes up for a spike. Still unsure. Going to monitor the meter and see what happens. I still don't get it.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
other than an occasional grow light on some tomato starts nothing else is different that I can discern.

Ah yes, I remember my first "tomato starters" and the amount of electricity required for those grow lights.

I'll be danged though if those "tomatos" didn't taste gooooooood.

Sounds to me like their estimate was/is way off.


I'd kind of like to get a Sense Home Energy Monitor - from what I've heard they can identify what's using power by analyzing subtle power changes. I can't justify the cost, but it sure looks like a neat toy/tool .