High income, high power

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For all its high-tech communications and security systems, things are disappearing at Keith McCaw's huge, lakefront estate on Lake Washington in Seattle.

Kilowatts. Thousands of them.

Last year, the 20,000-square-foot McCaw mansion gobbled up 604,960 kilowatt hours of electricity. That's by far the largest residential power consumption in the area served by Seattle City Light - 50 times the juice consumed by the average household and more than twice the wattage consumed by the second-highest user, the Highlands home of Seattle Mariners' co-owner Chris Larson.

At a time when City Light and other utilities are urging businesses and private individuals to cut back on their energy use, a look at the largest users - residential, commercial and industrial - provides an instructive glimpse at where the region's electricity goes.

McCaw, a member of the cell-phone dynasty, says he is chagrined at topping the list, especially in the midst of a regional energy crunch. Alerted by City Light, he said he had hired electricians to track down what he suspects is a ground fault or other problem with his new home.

Seattle City Light's top 10 residential power users in 2000 1. Keith McCaw - 604,960 kilowatt hours 2. Chris Larson - 258,250 kwh 3. Julia Calhoun - 239,430 kwh 4. Bagley Wright - 238,141 kwh 5. Bruce E. Hosford - 203,154 kwh 6. Andrea Selig - 182,940 kwh 7. Henry L. Kotkins, Jr. - 157,068 kwh 8. John Goodman - 155,467 kwh 9. Bruce Nordstrom - 131,314 kwh 10. Mark Torrance - 130,434 kwh

Assuming he paid the utility's average cost of 5.5 cents per kilowatt hour, McCaw's 2000 power bill would have been more than $33,000.

"This is a wake-up call for me," he said. "It doesn't take a genius to figure out there's some waste going on. And, I assure you, we're going to find out what it is."

The McCaw home headed a list of top residential energy users provided by Seattle City Light under the state's public-records act. Before releasing the names to The Times, City Light notified those on the list, which reads like a roster of Seattle's wealthy elite, including former Microsoft executive Larson, who has been expanding a mansion in the exclusive Highlands; builder and art collector Bagley Wright, who lives nearby; and department-store executive Bruce Nordstrom.

Others on the list are real-estate developer Bruce Hosford, who also lives in the Highlands; Andrea Selig, former wife of downtown developer Martin Selig; luggage-store owner Henry Kotkins, who lives in Magnolia; developer John Goodman, another Magnolia resident; and technology entrepreneur Mark Torrance, who has been remodeling his lakeshore home on Webster Point.

The list does not include homes on the Eastside "Gold Coast" or other suburban areas likely to include other residences that may have similar high energy use. Those areas are served by Puget Sound Energy, an investor-owned company that is not governed by the public-records act and that refused to reveal any of its top energy users.

Overall, City Light's top electricity users are industrial and commercial giants. But half of the utility's electricity goes to private homes in Seattle and nearby neighborhoods. The average home or apartment uses about 12,000 kilowatt hours of energy per year, which is how much power McCaw used in a week last year. City Light says the average three-bedroom home uses 18,000 kilowatt hours a year.

A kilowatt-hour is a standard measure of electricity equal to running a standard 1,000-watt hair dryer for one hour.

The average energy consumption of the top 10 users served by City Light is nearly 20 times the average residential consumption.

In response to Times inquiries, the top residential users offered explanations ranging from major construction projects to one user who said he had been keeping a door open so pets could come and go during the day.

McCaw offered no excuses.

"Yes, we have a big house. But we have gas heat, and we're insulated to the max. We have a great deal of electronic systems, but they only consume on demand. Computers are supposed to shut systems down when they're not in use."

It's possible that the computer system designed to make his home more energy efficient is malfunctioning - producing the opposite results, he says.

"We're very energy conscious. My children walk through the house turning off lights. We have a serious problem, and I'm going to fix it."

Other top users expressed similar determination.

"You've done me a big favor," said Kotkins, Skyway Luggage owner whose home is seventh on the list.

"My electric bills have been running up to $1,500 a month. I thought they were too high, but I figured, well, there's an energy crisis out there. And then I got the notification from City Light, and I knew there was something wrong."

He does not have electric heat. His pool is heated with gas, not electricity. And City Light says its meter is operating properly.

"I'm determined to find out where that power's going," he said.

Technology entrepreneur Torrance, who is 10th on the list, said his power use zoomed during a major reconstruction project at his lakefront home at Webster Point. The project included replacing an inefficient electric-heating system.

"We're doing everything we can to cut our consumption," he said. "We took out all the electric duct heating, and switched to gas. But the builders used these huge electric fans to dry the drywall. Our bills will be way down this year."

Selig said she was deeply chagrined that her 8,690-square-foot mansion is on the list.

"I'm a very conservative person, and this is terrible," she said.

She has tried to cut energy consumption by closing off portions of the lakefront home in the Madison Park area and cutting the power to the heated pool. But the house is "far too big for us," she said. It uses electric heat, which escapes through vast panels of single-pane glass facing the lake.

"I'm tired of living in a fishbowl," she said. "This is not New York. This is not how people live here in the Northwest. These bills are a horrible symbol of consumption. Everything we do touches other people. It's up to us to set a better example for our kids."

Ross Anderson can be reached at 206-464-2061 or randerson@seattletimes.com.