When you notice a cat sleeping in an odd place in your home, it’s usually a warm spot. Twice Clark Public Utilities energy counselor Mike Wallace used homeowners’ cats as mystery troubleshooters.
“The first time was an accident,” said Wallace, who had gone to a utility customer’s home because of nine consecutive months of high utility bills.
Wallace checked the north Clark County home out and found no obvious culprits.
When checking the basement, the homeowner mentioned that the floor near a refrigerator and unused fireplace was warm. The owner said she thought the floor was warm because of the refrigerator, and that’s why the cat slept there.
“This didn’t sound right,” he said, “so I checked the cold water input on the water heater, and it was cold, so I knew there was hot water leaving the tank. My assumption was that the leak was most likely creating the warm spot in the concrete, and sure enough that is what it was.”
The cat found the broken pipe and slept there because the concrete above was warm.
Wallace supports utility customers in north county, which is everyone north of 99th Street. It includes a mix of small town neighborhoods and large rural properties in Salmon Creek, Brush Prairie, Battle Ground, Ridgefield and Amboy.
“In the towns and subdivisions, our customers often use gas for heat, but it doesn’t reach the rural areas,” he said.
Heating is the largest expense for a home, which sometimes can hide smaller but still significant increases in a utility bill.
“Pumps for septic tanks and wells often turn out to be the culprit,” he said. “When I can’t find anything inside a home that accounts for an increase, I look for these systems and start asking questions.”
Failing septic or well pumps may run without shutting off and this provides a consistent increase, but normal heating increases during the winter can mask them.
“These are rare failures, but they do happen. Sometimes I can stand near them to listen if they shut off or not,” he said. “And ask the customer if they’ve heard the pump shut off lately.”
Often Wallace said he finds hot tubs running constantly, too. Which makes sense if the owners use them regularly.
“Many tubs are only used a few months out of the year though and they can add $40 to $50 a month to the electric bill,” he said. “If they’re not being used for long stretches, it can help lower costs to turn them down or even off.”
Irrigation pumps can also fail and their lines can leak. Both might cause an increase in a customer’s utility bill.
Wallace said he especially enjoys helping customers solve the puzzle their utility bills present.
“I love the investigative part of the job,” he said, “and educating people about saving money. Sometimes, there are some really simple things they can do that will make a pretty significant dent in their bill.”
Wallace’s second meeting with a troubleshooting cat happened just three weeks after the first. Again, the customer had months of inexplicably high bills. During the energy audit, he found no explanation for the rise in the common spots other than the supply water line on the hot water heater was cold. On a hunch, he asked if the customer had a cat. He did.
“Does your cat sleep someplace weird?” he asked.
The homeowner pointed to a place in the hallway. When he measured the temperature on the floor he found it ten degrees warmer than the rest of the floor.
“If I had to guess, I’d say you’ve got a broken hot water line right under here,” he said.
Only the cat was disappointed in that lucky discovery.
Energy Adviser is written by Clark Public Utilities. Send questions to ecod@clarkpud.com or to Energy Adviser, c/o Clark Public Utilities, P.O. Box 8900, Vancouver, WA 98668.
