Well just checked and at the moment.
There was 2 breakers that were about 10º above ambient temperature.

The bathroom breaker that Zairman just replaced for me a few months ago and the one below it, the breaker for the washing machine outlet (which is in the bathroom) is also about 10º warmer. The washing machine hasn't been ran since last night. So wonder if that outlet is leaking some juice.
The bathroom breaker.... GFI... jeeez that one carries both bathrooms outlets and lights, fart fans that aren't plugged in and the exterior outlet on the outside of the house, (which I just replaced that outlet hoping I wasn't going to have to replace the breaker.) but nothing has been ran in the bathrooms except a light for just a few minutes when someone is in it to cause it to be warm. It could be just the heat from the washer breaker below it.

 

10 degrees above ambient should not be too big a deal I would think, but if there was no load on it, that would raise a question. If you are used to even minor electrical, you can try to remove the face of the panel to make sure that heat is not coming from wiring connections or earth bar. DO NOT mess with it if you don't feel good about it, I dont want to tell somebody something to get them hurt.
You might want to walk around with the IR and check out fan motors and junk just for kicks and giggles.
Last summer when it was 118 degrees for three weeks, I walked around my house and "saw" major defects in insulation and places the air was ecaping. Handy little tools.

 

PSS-Mag - have to keep in mind this past years' weather was a bit more severe, at least here in SE Missouri, as compared to other recent years.

When you say more and more power, is that actual KWH, or just $$? Keep in mind that many utilities have had substantial rate increases recently. Also, are all the people you mentioned on the same utility/cooperative? May have different rate structures. Need to be sure to compare KWH to keep everything equal.

And, it was mentioned in an earlier post by chrism9232 - the meter itself may not be right. The utility company should have a program in place to verify its meters and to address any concerns toward their meters - after all, that is essentially their cash register.

I track home energy usage pretty closely, so I use the following website to determine the average temperatures to calculate heating and cooling degree-days for use toward estimating HVAC power usage.
http://agebb.missouri.edu/weather/hi...ion_prefix=del
Perhaps you can find a county close enough to you to make a reasonable comparison, if you're wish to take things to that extreme.

The reason I mention this (geez, we've gone a long ways away from water heaters now!) is that in my case, I found that well over 1/2 of my annual electric usage is HVAC-related - that was eye-opening. I did have forced-air electric heat up until this year, though. Waiting to see how much the heat pump changes things.

But, you're on the right track - figure out just what the major users are, then consider ways to reduce the usage. Replacing things with more efficient fixtures does not typically provide a good payback until the item has failed or is close to its end-of-life as my HVAC system was.

 

i have an all electric rent house, teneat complained of electric bill so we put a timer on the hot water heater, currently it goes off at 10:00 pm and comes on at 5:30 am. it has an over ride button if you have the need for hot water at 2 am

my aunt has a ranch and the guest quarters has it own hot water heater, she has it on a switch, turn it on an hour before bath time and she turn it off after when we are done.

here in Terxas we have choices of who we buy power from.
reliant is around 16.5 per kwh, i have gexa and it is around .13, it makes a difference. i got one the other day with a 1 year introductary rate of .109

if you have the money, the on demand , tankless hot water heater might be a consideration.

 

Yea we are using considerably more KWH than last year.
and yes us our parents, brothers and wifes co workers are all on the same Coop. Our bill has always been lower than everyone elses do to being a earth burm home until this past year or so and we have been constantly $50+ higher each month than everyone else.

 

I want one of those so bad, except I will also need a softners and filters system to put before it. A friend had one with out a filter/softner and it lasted 6 months before it plugged up.

 

Here I go again - being a post-*****.

I put a timer on my water heater - didn't see any measurable change. I suggest that a timer is financially beneficial only if the heater is older / not very well insulated. The timer can only save on the 'storage' costs of hot water, the costs of heating the water to temperature will remain the same and is controlled by actual hot water usage.

Tankless heaters are good in that one is not paying these 'storage' costs to keep water hot. These 'storage' costs are smaller with the newer units that have improved insulation factors. Have heard some complaints that the tankless units can't keep up - may be an initial sizing issue. Would want to be sure that you have sufficient panel box capacity - when these dudes kick on, they do suck the power down. Most likely an issue with those that also have electric resistance heat.

Doggone! I'm staying out of Texas. Here is a government website listing average consumer electric costs by state:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electri...able5_6_b.html

 

For that much of a change, especially when compared to others - I suggest having the meter checked out - at least to eliminate that possibility.

A change of $50 per month relative to others is a lot of electricity going somewhere. Coop's are pretty customer-friendly - maybe because the customers are the owners.

Given what you've explained here, they should be more than happy to check things out for you - perhaps even do an energy audit of your house to provide further energy-saving suggestions.

 

There is a reason. I have seen situaions where people get a new water heater and it fails in less than a year. Just because you have a "new" water heater doesn't mean that the risk of failure is less. They aren't made well. I've seen bad welds on the tappings. I've seen situations where the glass lining fails and the steel tank rusts quickly. In theory replacing the tank is the solution, but my experiance tells me that it's far from a guarantee.

Another thing that I've learned is that in the quest for the answer, the chances for opening up a can of worms increases with every new task. I guess this is ok if you're doing these things in your own house.

I can't offer "the" solution. It's really up to you on where you want to go with the information you have. I would like to address the issue with the water temp in the shower. If it's a single lever, pressure balance valve, there might be a problem with the pressure balance assembly. People almost always suspect a water heater problem when this occures.

 

good points wittom
I recently replaced mine and discovered that stuff inside a water heater can get nasty, munincipal water is questionable to start with. That would be fungi, algae, and metals that can reek havoc down in the tank and the rod. One good way to make the heater demon raise it's uglyness is to go out for a three day weekend, then smell the rotten egg smell in the water.
I guess depending on the cost of patching it up vs the gamble if anything else may be about to go out, it is a choice the customer/owner needs to make based on a knowledge base... such as here... when they decide if they should buy a new one.
Rheem is a darn good one with a gurantee.....and you are right there are some el cheapo appliances out there