OK Need your thoughts as I had a 100% increase in power consumption at my cabin from 8/6 to 9/9

My cabin has a chest freezer outside and a side by side Refrigerator inside. I have a water tank for game outside. Except for the stove clock no other power is on. Water heater is off when we leave. When not there I use 5.5 to 6 KW a day or 180 to 200 kw a month. So May, june July August was 170 to 200 KW each.I checked with the power company and I used 33 KW for the last 6 days. Normal now

When I get my bill for September I used 378 kw. I'm thinking a critter chewed my hose to the water tank and my well ran till it froze or it over heated and the breaker shut down.

Depressed I'm thinking I have a big project next week when I go up fo the deer season

I call a friend who is farming 50 of the 160 acres and ask if he could check my well. He tells me all is fine the stock tank is full the float valve is working.

He says the door is secure on the cabin so it doesn't look like someone was inside.

What could have spiked my power by 100%???? it occured between 8/18 and 9/9 21 day at 15KW a day

I am so glad my wellis OK but I am baffled at the surge and now all seems fine.

Any Ideas???

They didn’t read the meter wrong did they?

KRM

Its one of those new remote read. That may be the case but after my 3 calls to them and detailed reviews I hope they would have owned up to that.

I doubt they read it wrong if it is automated.

Would the electric company pro rated?

Was the A/C left set low?

Could someone with an RV have plugged in? Saw that at a lease once.

Meter misread or misinterpreted at some point.

Smartmeter Texas, sign up and you can read your meter yourself, has plenty of tracking/sort options, by the hour, day, week etc

Air conditioner is off . If it was on I'd have high usage every prior month and Gates all locked as my friend verified during his visit so no access to house power

I'll be heading up next week so I hope I can see something that caused this huge jump. Misreading the usage would make sense but it's an advanced remote unit and I've been talking to a customer service rep and they have not raised this as a possibility.

David my neighbor in corpus advised me of smart meter and I will be signing up. Thanks

You say they just put in a new meter that reports itself.

Any chance they were just charging you an average before the new meter based on your prior use and now the new meter is a more correct representation? I know we had some disputes from power company at my grandmas old farm/farmhouse when we transitioned from a meter that they had to manually read (and only read every once in a while) to the new automated ones.

Red not new about 1 year old and no previous issues, They claim actual readings. Next week I will review all possibilities maybe meter is screwed up

Could be someone trespassed and didn't close the outside freezer. Then your friend checked it and closed it. Could be the angle of the sun changed, to hit both the inside and outside freezer. Could be the compressor or thermostat or pipes going bad in either freezer. It seems like a lot of electricity, and you say it is all coming from the two freezers so far as you know. If it is all coming from the freezers, and a mechanical problem can quickly change the load from the freezers, it is probably a freezer. If the load is normal now, could be the compressor died and is no longer running hot.

Long story short, you need a new chest freezer.

^^^^

Dang....I'd say you have a lucrative future in front of you. Being able to conclusively diagnose appliance issues from a remote location.

Got to be a market for that kind of talent.

It is called ESTCP.

https://www.serdp-estcp.org/About-SERDP-and-ESTCP/About-ESTCP

DOD paid for it. Lot of old equipment burning electricity on military bases.

That's called 'when your only tool is a hammer, everything problem looks like a nail'.

OP's issue could be any number of things (to include your assessment).

I wouldn't be too quick to "Long Story Short" anything.

this

Could have a critter across your meter connections or a high resistance short in a circuit somewhere. Check all your receptacles and compare voltage readings with all appliances off, if there's high resistance short that's not tripping a breaker the voltage on the circuit should be lower than the other circuits. First pull your meter and see if there is anything like a nest or critter that fried itself that's drawing amperage. You can also feel the breakers to see if one is hotter than the other and that will be your problem, either the circuit or the appliance on the circuit.

Are you in some social rate plan? We had the same happen called them and was told that the rate was not honored when a power emergency was called. They charges us about 100% more for those months.

Appreciate all the inputs. Will bring my meter and check all suggestions. Again all power off except well, chest freezer outside, Side by side refrigerator inside. Micro wave, electric stove plugged in but no usage as far as I know. Been very consistent for years at 5 to 6.5 KW a day. From 8/18 to 9/9 used 296 kw or 14kw per day. I was sure that the well which is connected to my stock tank by a hose was chewed or ruptured and the well ran to over heat or froze however by friend confirmed stock tank is full and well is OK.

Access to land is via gates with hardened chains and secure combo locks. Friend confirmed no gate tampering or cut 5 wire fence. Lost a trailer 3 years ago so made it much more difficult to break in.

Baffled to say the least

Again appreciate all your thoughts.

THIS

Notify the electric utility if you plan on cutting the seal and pulling the meter. Electric utilities have different policies on how they handle a customer doing this. Some allow it but most require a serviceman to come to the location and disconnect it. Liability reasons. I don't know how sophisticated your utility's meter reading software is but some alert if power is disconnected from the meter. A broken seal is an indication of tampering and they may have a policy to bill you an additional charge to send a serviceman out to check the location. I would call them ahead of time and explain your situation and what you plan to do before you do it. I'm just trying to save you a headache with the utility company.

I don't have an explanation for the additional power usage unless livestock used your water trough for a period of time while grazing in your area. Our cattle rotate to different parts of the ranch and will stay for several weeks and then move on to another part of the ranch.

There are several device specific electrical monitoring devices on he market now. One is Kill-A-Watt but their are others. You can plug your freezer into it and then into the wall outlet and it will give you the Kwh used by that appliance during a period of time. If you use several of these units, it may give you a clue which appliance may be the culprit. The water well is probably on a separate breaker however with the Kill-A-Watt devices you should be able to subtract the usage from your appliance usage and get a close idea of well usage.

My experience? 30 years in the electrical utility industry in billing systems, SCADA systems, customer service and computers.
and best of all - Retired

Hmmmm.......any chance tweakers are running an extension cord to your place and stealing power? Don't laugh! It happens more than people realize

just a wild guess, but could you have a running toilet that is causing your well pump to run more than usual.

If it were bitcoin miners, the bill would be way higher.