Utilities Question for those electrically inclined

[photographyjess.livejournal.com]

My electric bill seems unusually high. I saw the meter-reader man this morning, and so I thought I might check it out. Knowing nothing about electricity, I have a question. I live in an owner occupied house. My side pays for our own utilities including electric. There is one digital meter, and two identical analog meters. How do I figure out which one is for my side of the house? I didn't see any identifying markers on any of the meters.

Comments

[photographyjess.livejournal.com]

That's what I am wondering about. My side of the house does not have access to the basement, where there is a washer and dryer. The house is pretty old and there are some other wacky things about it (ie: lack of any ventilation over the stove or anywhere in the kitchen) and I think something might be amiss. But relations with my landlords aren't the best, so I'm not quite sure what to do about it.

Miswiring

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Miswiring is not uncommon in these houses (the ciruits for one unit are on another unit's meter). If identified, the landlord must correct this.

At the very best, miswiring can be accidental. At the worst, someone can have you deliberately paying for their electrical usage without you knowing it.

Here is my advice: Locate your breaker box in the basement. Trip all your breakers, but not the matser breaker to the unit (the one on top, larger than all the rest). Then, turn them on one at a time and identify what they do. If a circuit breaker doesn't seem to do anything for your unit, leave it off. This is what we do, although the miswiring in our case was purely accidental on the part of the electrical contractor. If you do not have access to your breaker box, ask for access to perform this task so you can label your circuit breakers.

Re: Miswiring

[somer-villains.livejournal.com]

to take mattt's advice even further, wait until you see the other unit's basement lights on, or the porch lights on, etc, and then go down and switch off your breakers, one at a time. see if any of the common area lights go out. if you can hear the washer and dryer when they are in use, see if one of your breakers is also supplying power to them.