High electric bill when burning wood

[smabon]

This pass winter was my first year burning wood. I purchased a Napoleon 1402 insert. Pretty much burned 24/7 as I used it as my primary heat source. I must say that it did a great job, thought that I would save myself some money by burning wood instead of having to heat with the oil furnace. I was shocked when I got my electric bills for the months of Jan. and Feb. My electric bill almost doubled. Went from 400-500 kilowatt hours the winter before to about 1000 hours this winter. The only thing new in my house was the insert with it's duel blowers. Does this sound right? The blowers are just squirrel cage fans, I think that's what they are called, and I thought that they were pretty efficient. Is there anything that I should check to see if it running correctly? Would disconnecting one of the blowers help and if it would which one should I disconnect? Any info would be very helpful. Thanks for your time.

 

[drdoct]

It's not your blower doubling your electric bill. Maybe you should go around your house (and shed/etc..) and make up a list of everything you've changed out that has a cord in the last year. Is your wife using the electric heater in the bathroom every day? I think Home Depot has one of those energy counter things that you put between the plug and the wall to see how much energy it's using. I don't know about the Napoleon, but the Lopi blower doesn't use enough for me to tell the difference. Is someone at home all day now that wasn't there a year ago? Cooking more? Get a bigger fridge? Install a swimming pool? There's got to be something using up the watts though.

 

[mike1234]

I had the same issue, electric bill went way up, and I was trying to figure if it was the wood furnace. But what I forgot - when I put the horse shed in last summer, I put a heater in the stock tank. Heating any water with electricity is expensive. (I'd like to do it at least partially with solar next winter, any input here would be nice, maybe a different room, different thread).

I'd look around for other things you added, especially anything that creates heat.

 

[BrotherBart]

Somebody around there is using a space heater.

 

[TKeller]

I may be wrong. But my wife and I were convinced that our blower on the old wood stove caused our electric bill to go up $25.00 a month or $1.00 a day. To me that was significant when every penny counts. We seen this year after year even though we didn't do any kilowat calculations etc. It was a fasco blower that would really roar on high. Tony

 

[burntime]

Brother bart is right. Wifey is using a space heater when you are gone...

 

[d.n.f.]

If nothing has changed electrical usage wise and the wife is not running the heater what else could it be but the blower?
I can tell you the blower on my old natty gas fireplace was an energy pig. Made tons of noise and blew nothing, but when it was on I noticed an increase spin in the old electrical meter.

Yes they do make efficient blowers, but I am guessing the cheaper ones are not.

See how much power the blower is sucking when it is running.

 

[begreen]

Just curious, was the furnace blower used in conjunction with the stove to move the heat around? If not, is there a new plasma tv in the house?

 

[BrotherBart]

Five hundred Kwh will run a 1500 watt space heater for 12 hours a day for a month. Five hundred Kwh will run the dual cage blower on my wood stove (68 watts on high) 24 hours a day for ten months.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Mine went up a small amount, but not doubled.
I have a Lopi Answer with a blower...2 small barrel cages...1.8 amps and 207 watts to run on high.
I saw an increase of appx 5-7$ more a month, but I think you have another culprit there,

 

[Highbeam]

Do you have a well? I have seen a leak form in the pipe between the well pump and the top of the well that would cause the pump to just run and run and run.

500 KwH is huge. That's like 50% of the normal electrical consumption for an all electric house in our area. Look for the biggies like a space heater or well pump.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Do you have a well? I have seen a leak form in the pipe between the well pump and the top of the well that would cause the pump to just run and run and run.

500 KwH is huge. That's like 50% of the normal electrical consumption for an all electric house in our area. Look for the biggies like a space heater or well pump.

Good call on the well pump idea...might not be the issue, but I was shocked to see hom much the meter was spinning when the kids were filling up the kiddie pool.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

plug in gizmo is a KIL-A-WATT try radio shack or ebay for best deal i think.
maine libraries loan them out currently.

pook has the idea, kil-a-watt on th plug and run the blower see what its pulling. i cant see a blower doing that by itself thats just too big a jump. gotta be somthing else, probably hidden like a well pump as suggested (great call BTW) or maybe a "sump pump runing constantly, water heater elements going bad and stsying on all the time , , i'd concentrate on things which have heating elements in them or hidden items like above.

 

[BrotherBart]

Pretty easy to home in on. If it stopped when the weather warmed up it ain't the well pump or the water heater. :lol:

 

[KevinM]

I hadn't though of saving electricity when we added our insert last winter.

Was a bit shocked to measure that the chest freezer was using 4.5 kWh/day. New one uses 0.75 kWh/day and it is probably colder.

Between the insert, new freeezer, and a new electric hot water heater we dropped around 8 kwH/day

Kevin.

 

[drizler]

Do you have a well? I have seen a leak form in the pipe between the well pump and the top of the well that would cause the pump to just run and run and run.

500 KwH is huge. That's like 50% of the normal electrical consumption for an all electric house in our area. Look for the biggies like a space heater or well pump.

Put your hand on the well line and feel if it is running constantly. That will likely be your culprit. Stuck or corroded foot valve not working will send your bill skyrocketing. Been there done that. We ran 2 small space heaters much of the winter in the bedrooms most of the night. I couldn't believe how much $$$ in pellets that high priced heat saved me. The bill didn't go up $10 / month beyond the usual and we get ***** for electric. Check that well.

 

[michaelryba]

I pulled my blower off on my Regency insert & it's label says usage is 1 Amp. Because Amps x Volts = Watts, this means it uses about 120 Watts per hour--about the same as one box fan or two 60W lightbulbs. Run it 24/7. 120W X 24hrs X 30days = 86400 watts, or 86 Kilowatts a month. A quick look at MA electrical rates said you guys pay 17.5 c per kilowatt.
If you want to depress yourself, you can notice that New England rates are much higher than elsewhere. (broken link removed)

That blower can't be costing you more than about $14 bucks a month running 24/7.

 

[smabon]

Thanks for all of the ideas. Just to answer some of the questions/ideas. We do not have a well, the electricity spike was only during the burning months. Once a stopped burning my electricity usage dropped. We do run a electric heater in the bathroom in the morning but for an hour at most. We ran one the year before and didn't notice the spike. Like I originally said, there is nothing new in my house except for the insert. I will probably end up picking up one of those kil-a-watt devices and see what the blowers are doing. Can someone tell me how to make the blowers run without starting a fire. Thanks for your time.

 

[ControlFreak]

Pro,
To run the blowers without a fire, you'll have to open up the right side-cover and short out the snap-disk that is screwed to the top plate on the inside. That snap-disk is a little switch that conducts when the top plate reaches the proper temperature. To remove the side-cover, you'll need a hex driver that you sneak into the openings at the edge. Shine a flashlight in there and you'll see two screws that need to come out.

BTW: What part of central MA are you in? there are 3 of us here north of Worcester who have 1401 or 1402 Napoleons, that I know of.

Dan

 

[begreen]

Some things that run up our electric bill in the winter are:
-colder incoming water means the hot water heater has to work longer to bring it up to 120 deg
-lights stay on much longer, especially in the kitchen
-clothes are not hung on the line, electric dryer runs more

 

[mayhem]

My electric bill spikes in the winter too, but not by 100%. Some things we do:

- Use the electric dryer more often. A full load in the dryer costs about 80 cents to a dollar in electricity on my bill.
- Lights are on probably 2-3 times as long in a given 24hr period.
- Boiler runs more since the stove is not 100% of our heat on the colder days.
- Occasional electric heater for the colders rooms, but we're talking about running it on high for about 20 -30 minutes a day.
- Twin 52: ceiling fnas in the living room run darn close to 24x7 for months at a time.
- Outdoor lighting is running more.
- TV is on more in a given 24 hour period...more likely to watch a DVD or run the stereo too.
- Electric stove gets used more to make hot water for tea.
- Electric stove and oven get used more to cook our meals instead of outdoor grilling. We do grill in all weather ocnditions, but while we might grill outside 2/3 of the time in the summer, we might only do 1/4 in the winter.

Based on what you've told us, it does sound like your insert may be the culprit. Your only way to be sure if with the meter though.

 

[smabon]

BTW: What part of central MA are you in? there are 3 of us here north of Worcester who have 1401 or 1402 Napoleons, that I know of.

Dan

I live in Lunenburg, MA which is east of Worcester. Love my 1402, got it last winter and it is able to heat my whole house. My house has a open floor plan on the first floor and the stairs to the second floor is about 10 - 12 feet away for the front of the 1402 so heat gets upstairs pretty good as well.

 

[iskiatomic]

-clothes are not hung on the line, electric dryer runs more

Do you mean a clothesline.........gasp, god forbid. I have been trying to drill that into my wife's head forever.

It seems to be easier to pay the bill than get her fired up about hanging clothes.

 

[tjnamtiw]

I may be wrong. But my wife and I were convinced that our blower on the old wood stove caused our electric bill to go up $25.00 a month or $1.00 a day. To me that was significant when every penny counts. We seen this year after year even though we didn't do any kilowat calculations etc. It was a fasco blower that would really roar on high. Tony

Those are small fractional horsepower motors. Even a 1 HP motor on my swimming pool running 12 hours a day costs 'JUST' $37 a month. I have a Kill a Watt with the ability to plug in your average yearly rate and then plug in appliances to see what they cost. My chest freezer is $4.15 a month, my new big refrigerator is now showing $11.45 a month, my wine cooler was just a tick over $1 a month. This winter I plan to put it on my stoves to see what they cost to run. Unfortunately, it won't measure 220 volt systems. For that you need a clamp on meter and some estimating.

 

[tjnamtiw]

-clothes are not hung on the line, electric dryer runs more

Do you mean a clothesline.........gasp, god forbid. I have been trying to drill that into my wife's head forever.

It seems to be easier to pay the bill than get her fired up about hanging clothes.

dont tell her that hung clothes collect possible allergens!

How in the world did we ever survive our childhoods with allergens on our clothes, raw eggs in our milk shakes, chicken sitting on the same cutting board as our salad, taking lunches to school in brown bags and no little ice packs??????