I have FiOS ultimate HD, phone, and internet. I have two DVRs and one set-top box. My August electric bill has DOUBLED from last year, and is over 800kwh higher than it was in July. I am in NJ and it has not been all that hot in August, so it's not the air conditioning. That certainly wouldn't account for the usage being ALMOST double what it was last year! There is this huge Verizon box in my basement wired into my electrical panel. Can two landline phones, one internet router, one 40" Sony HDTV in use at a time for maybe 3 hours a day, 2 DVRs and a set-top box account for all of this? My bill is about $200 more than it should be (based on actual meter reading), so if it's attributable to FiOS, it's not saving me a dime over my previous Verizon land line, DSL, and Dish Network Everything Pack subscription....in fact, it's costing me MORE!
Help!
There is no way that amount of equipment can account for that much of a bill hike. If you are doubtful, there are wattage meters you can plug your devices into, then plug the device into the wall outlet. This will show you actual current consumption of electricity of all your sevices.
Frig, washer, microwave, computer on 24/7?
Did you change electricity provider/source?
What was the difference between July last year and this year in watt usage?
Did you buy a Volt?
I'll let the originator of this thread make up his own mind about where the power consumption came from.
ONT is about 20 watts which works out to about 15KwH per month
DVR* is about 40 watts (each) 30KwH per month per DVR
STB is about 25 watts (each) about 18KwH per month per STB
Router is about 15 watts IIRC, or about 10KwH per month
(measured with a Triplett 9000 series DMM)
* for 7216/6416, the 7232 is a bit greener at about 32 watts.
These devices all draw essentially the same power whether they are ON or OFF.
I doubt the use doubled, but between the increase from the equipment, and the typically higher summer rates from many electric utilities, coupled with AC use, it quite quite easily have doubled in cost.
IN any case, you can work out how many KwH the equipment is consuming based upon how many of each device you have, add it all up, and see what portion of the Electric bill it is.
I live in a small house with a gas dryer, gas hot water, gas heat, no AC, so my basic electric usage isn't all that high, and it wasn't hard to spot the impact the FiOS equpiment.
Is the TV a plasma and did you get it at the same time you installed FiOS? Plasma TVs can draw a lot of power.
We have two Sony Bravia 40" TVs and a 20" LG LCD that is rarely used. Only one of the Bravias is used on a regular basis. We've had them even before FIOS was installed. We used to have Dish Network with 2 DVRs, the same 2 TVs, and a DSL with a Linksys router. The only other change since then is that we got a new desktop PC in March.
We have an old dehumidifier in the basement that's been working overtime with the dampness this year and has tripped the breaker a couple of times. Perhaps that is the problem; it should be replaced.
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