imported_marako
June 25th, 2003, 12:35 PM
I've notice for many moths now that my electrical usage is noticably up. I'm thinking it is my dryer.
History:
Last summer I start an large addition to my house that will add about 1000 square ft to the house (almost double!!). My washer and dryer need to go for a while so they spent 2 or 3 months in my friends garage. In the fall they made it back home and went into the new basement. I temporarily extend the old existing connections from the old spot down into the new basement. At the time there was no electricity in the new house.
As we went through an unusally wet fall, winter spring and now summer here in NJ, and an usally cold winter the washer and dryer sat in a unheated, sometime very wet (think 1" of standing water) basement. They have been used since they were put in the basement.
Since the fall I noticed my electric bills were higher (20-40%). I suspected the tools, work lights etc. Through the winter I notice that the dryer would take fairly long to run. Normally its 45-60 minutes depending on the load. Over the winter it was more like 2 hours. I guessed this was normal since the air in my basement was always at or just below freezing (vs the normal 60-70 degrees it would be in a normal house).
I haven't paid much attention recently but my bills are still high, and the dryer still seems to run longer than usuall (though not 2 hours anymore). The new parts of the house are still with out electricity so there is nothing really different between my house this year, and last year that would run up the bill. The dryer vent currently vents into the basement.
Any thoughts what might be wrong? The lint trap is cleaned every load, the unit does dry the cloths... just takes a little longer. I replaced the element several years ago so it is just a single element (eleminating the thought that 1 of 2 elements went bad). I haven't checked but I'm assumin that if I wired it wrong, it would not run at all.
History:
Last summer I start an large addition to my house that will add about 1000 square ft to the house (almost double!!). My washer and dryer need to go for a while so they spent 2 or 3 months in my friends garage. In the fall they made it back home and went into the new basement. I temporarily extend the old existing connections from the old spot down into the new basement. At the time there was no electricity in the new house.
As we went through an unusally wet fall, winter spring and now summer here in NJ, and an usally cold winter the washer and dryer sat in a unheated, sometime very wet (think 1" of standing water) basement. They have been used since they were put in the basement.
Since the fall I noticed my electric bills were higher (20-40%). I suspected the tools, work lights etc. Through the winter I notice that the dryer would take fairly long to run. Normally its 45-60 minutes depending on the load. Over the winter it was more like 2 hours. I guessed this was normal since the air in my basement was always at or just below freezing (vs the normal 60-70 degrees it would be in a normal house).
I haven't paid much attention recently but my bills are still high, and the dryer still seems to run longer than usuall (though not 2 hours anymore). The new parts of the house are still with out electricity so there is nothing really different between my house this year, and last year that would run up the bill. The dryer vent currently vents into the basement.
Any thoughts what might be wrong? The lint trap is cleaned every load, the unit does dry the cloths... just takes a little longer. I replaced the element several years ago so it is just a single element (eleminating the thought that 1 of 2 elements went bad). I haven't checked but I'm assumin that if I wired it wrong, it would not run at all.