Inspectional

Is our electricity rigged?

Is there a way to tell if someone has tapped into our electricity? Or if the landlord has rigged it somehow so that we are paying for something else? I live in a 3 bedroom apartment in Boston. We don't pay for heat and have gas heat anyway, but our electric bill mysteriously goes up from $30 in the summer to $190 in the winter. I suspect that someone has tapped into our electricity. I've already had the City Inspectional Service come and he couldn't find anything wrong and said we needed to hire an electrician. The landlord is refusing to send one, because he claims that there is nothing wrong with the wiring. The inspector already tried turning the power off and observing the meter and supposedly it stopped running. And he claims it's not connected to our furnace.

Public Comments

1. Electricity bills usually raise in the winter. I know mine always did, even though I did not use electric heat. $30 was about right. It's mostly because you are spending more time indoors during the colder months, especially in Boston where I understand it gets pretty cold.
2. You already did what I would have suggested "The inspector already tried turning the power off and observing the meter and supposedly it stopped running." But you need to repeat this with a slight variation. Turn everything off in your condo and then check the meter and see if it is indicating any power usage. Repeat this at different times of the day. If you do see a small current drain, it could be some electronics like a TV that uses power even when turned off. You need to unplug it. Where do you get hot water?
3. Could be furnace running but don't think so. Try turning off 1 circuit at a time and see what goes off Use a radio plugged to hear which outlets goes dead
4. That doesn't sound particularly odd or suspicious. You are probably using more hot water and doing more cooking on your stove top and in the electric oven in the winter months. It would be next to impossible to tap into your wiring without the electrical inspector being able to notice it.
5. There is at least one way someone else is using power from your meter. They could be tapped into one of your circuits. This could not be determined by just turning off all your circuits in the branch circuit panel. If the circuits on your branch circuit panel are identified, you could look at the meter and count the revolutions per minute of the meter disc. The speed is proportional the the amount of current being drawn. Then turn off your circuits, one at a time. Make sure that all your appliances on the "off" circuit are off. If the meter runs at the same speed, something else is connected to that circuit. If the circuits in the branch circuit panel are not identified, you would have to identify them. Lighting circuits are easy to identify. Turn on all the lights, and turn of breakers (or unscrew fuses) and see which lights go out. Make a list. Of course lamps plugged in to the wall are on receptacle circuits, so don't be fooled. Receptacle circuits can be tested the same way, with radios or lights plugged in. Although you are not paying for gas, perhaps the furnace blower fan is connected to your system. You could check this by listening to the heating system when running, and turning off all power. If the blower stops, that could be the culprit. The most common "outside" connections in apartment houses are for things like corridor lighting and heating, and outside lights.