Marina AC draw

[USAF M26X sailor]

The Base billing office called to say they think something is wrong. My normal slip electricty bill is $16/mo and that includes a $5/mo. min. charge. So what am I getting for $11/mo? I'm running a humidity dryer, hand held VHF charger, and the battery charger/maintainer. The billing office said this month will be over $100!

I don't have anyone next to me-STBD side (that would using the B-side of the utility tower). There is a finger pier on my Port side. The boat that shares the finger pier is another sail boat (25') and he is plugged into his own tower. I'm on a pier adjacient to the sea wall so there are only slips on one side of the pier (the pier parallels the seawall and is only 2' away from the seawall). Given the tower placements on the pier (finger pier, A-slip, utility tower, B-slip, finger pier) having anyone plugged into my outlet would be grossly obvious to anyone walking by. The piers and utility towers are only a couple of years old and appear to be in good order.

It shouldn't matter but I only have a 15a marine cord (30a type plug on the marina end and 15a type plug on the boat end).

I'm hoping the staff mis-read the meter when they submitted it to billing. Since my bill doesn't show the meter numbers (start, end, or qty used) this might become interesting as to if I'm responsible for the bill or not.

Any other ideas until I can get to the marina on Sat (in daylight) to inspect things?

[opie]

You have many knowledgeable members here that will try to give advice, but more info is needed.
1. What is your $ charge per KWH? (With that number we cab calculate how much KWH you used for $100)
2. Better, but you said they don't tell you, is the written amount of KWH reading last month and this month.
3. Read your KWH meter daily and post info here.
4. Give us you wattage rating of each appliance used or load used on board (including voltage, amps, whether on invertor or not, watts, and estimated duty cycle if not on all the time.)(this info should be on the nameplate on the load item.)
5. Photo a copy of the bill to the forum (block out personal info)
6. Any other info needed guys? (and gals?)

[opie]

Just for a guess, until you can supply more info, .......

$100, if guess 10 cents per KWH = 1000kwh used. If ignore negligible load from radio and assume batteries are fully charged and don't need trickle, that leaves dryer. Assume 1200 watts for a normal 120 volt dryer. Therefore = 1.2 kwh. Assume dryer is "stuck" on, = 720 hrs per month x 1.2kwh = 864kwh. My first guess is your dryer has a humidistat control malfunction and was running 100% all month resulting in 864 kwh and the batteries used the other 136 kwh. Just a first guess, for fun only....
Opie

[DaveB]

Most slips are not metered and Marinas give a flat out charge for 15,30 or 50 amp service. If you are a liveaboard the rate increaces.
Ck to see how your Marina charges elect. hookup and see how it's metered.
You could be paying for the whole dock elect. needs.
Sounds like someone sliped you the whole bill for the Mo.
Dave

The Base billing office called to say they think something is wrong. My normal slip electricty bill is $16/mo and that includes a $5/mo. min. charge. So what am I getting for $11/mo? I'm running a humidity dryer, hand held VHF charger, and the battery charger/maintainer. The billing office said this month will be over $100!

I don't have anyone next to me-STBD side (that would using the B-side of the utility tower). There is a finger pier on my Port side. The boat that shares the finger pier is another sail boat (25') and he is plugged into his own tower. I'm on a pier adjacient to the sea wall so there are only slips on one side of the pier (the pier parallels the seawall and is only 2' away from the seawall). Given the tower placements on the pier (finger pier, A-slip, utility tower, B-slip, finger pier) having anyone plugged into my outlet would be grossly obvious to anyone walking by. The piers and utility towers are only a couple of years old and appear to be in good order.

It shouldn't matter but I only have a 15a marine cord (30a type plug on the marina end and 15a type plug on the boat end).

I'm hoping the staff mis-read the meter when they submitted it to billing. Since my bill doesn't show the meter numbers (start, end, or qty used) this might become interesting as to if I'm responsible for the bill or not.

Any other ideas until I can get to the marina on Sat (in daylight) to inspect things?

[Divecoz]

Put an amp meter on / around the posttive lead of your shore power outlet . Inside or outside. Like Opie says . . maybe if your Humidifier is running wide open 24/7..

[Russ]

Just for a guess, until you can supply more info, .......

$100, if guess 10 cents per KWH = 1000kwh used. If ignore negligible load from radio and assume batteries are fully charged and don't need trickle, that leaves dryer. Assume 1200 watts for a normal 120 volt dryer. Therefore = 1.2 kwh. Assume dryer is "stuck" on, = 720 hrs per month x 1.2kwh = 864kwh. My first guess is your dryer has a humidistat control malfunction and was running 100% all month resulting in 864 kwh and the batteries used the other 136 kwh. Just a first guess, for fun only....
Opie

Nice mathematics.

If the dryer is stuck on at 1200 watts, I would expect the boat to be VERY hot inside. 1200 watts would generate a LOT of heat. My 1200 watt heater at 20 degrees F outside really heats up my cabin.

When you go onboard, is the cabin temp extraordinarily hot? The dryer might be the culprit.

Otherwise, I'd say somebody read the meter wrong.

[Kelly Hanson East]

Well done Russ, I missed that.

A 1200 Watt space heater would take a Mac boat interior to 75F from freezing weather in about 15 minutes - BTDT.

Your meter was either read incorrectly or juice is leaking out into the marina somewhere...

[USAF M26X sailor]

The conclusion...
The bill came in last week. $186.02. The Admiral called the marina and after significant discussions (sanitized for this family-oriented site) they agreed to look into it. They were stead fast that the meter is read every month and the readings were accurate. The next day they called back. It turns out they screwed up the calculation. Additionally another slip's bill was also included on mine. The corrected amount is $16.94 and they were very sorry for the mistake.

[pokerrick1]

I LOVE it!!! I just eat up this kind of incompentency

Rick