central air power???

[Wisneaky]

This seems weird to me so I'm hoping someone can help me figure this out. A week ago I turned the breaker off to my central ac unit. I almost always use 21kw a day at my house. I just checked my numbers and my daily usage dropped to 14kw a day. Is this even possible? That would mean my central air unit is drawing almost 300 watts an hour at idle, right? That seems like a crazy high number doesn't it?

 

[heat seeker]

It does seem high. Some compressors, especially the heat pump sort, have heaters in them to keep the oil warm. 300 watts seems like a lot, though. I always kill the power to mine in the winter, especially since I don't want some critter to find a nice warm place to winter and chew things up.

 

[Wisneaky]

It does seem high. Some compressors, especially the heat pump sort, have heaters in them to keep the oil warm. 300 watts seems like a lot, though. I always kill the power to mine in the winter, especially since I don't want some critter to find a nice warm place to winter and chew things up.

I do remember reading that mine had a heater of some sort in it.

 

[MaintenanceMan]

If the breaker is off then the crankcase heater can't be drawing anything. It's off too. It comes off the same circuit as the outside unit.

 

[fbelec]

if it is not a heat pump shut it off

 

[Bioburner]

power companies keep talking about "Vampire Power" but thats alot