[SunRescue] Power concerns.

[Mike Hebel]

>>Recently, we received a few bills in the mail from ConEd, which didn't
>>seem right.  Our first bill, with 8 machines running, came in around
>>$130.  The next two consecutive months came in near $190.  Now, we
>>didn't turn anything else on, and, in fact, turned one of the machines
>>off.

Not bad for a Comical Edison bill.  Ours occasionally runs in the $200 range
with 7 machines.  Thankfully I've learned that some of them I don't need to
keep on all the time.

>>What's the best way to find out exactly what amount of power a machine
>>is drawing, and calculate ourselves exactly how much we should be paying
>>(give or take some with the lights and television, etc)?

Well AFAIK there's two ways to do it:

1) Read all the wattage ratings on the computers, monitors, appliances, etc.
This should give you a good idea of what is on your bill IIRC because they
use KW in the bill calculation.  Don't ask me how to figure it - I'm a
lottery person. *grin*

2) Use a draw meter(?) on each item in question and calculate what the
actual wattage used is via Ohm's law.

>>We CANNOT be using more power, with less computers running, and turning
>>off lights constantly.  Something's fishy.  I want to find out if
>>someone else is drawing power from our feed (we're in a house with three
>>apartments).

That might be the case.  Many older homes have wiring that was laid out by
someone that thinks like a government contractor who took drugs and was
forced to stop taking them.  Very confused!

Mike Hebel