Howdy from a new member and a question about energy consumption!

[Doug Wilson II]

Howdy folks,

I'm a semi-long time lurker and have utilized this forum to make much more informed decisions on my venture into the laser world. In April I (following forum advice) flew out to the ISA trade show and struck a deal for my Trotec Speedy 300 and have been happily engraving and cutting since.

What I noticed is that my energy bill seems to have doubled from about 200 dollars a month to 400. While I knew there was going to be an associated cost, I seemed to have under-estimated this one. I'm wondering if this is on par? (For the record I did attempt to search for electric bills, but couldn't find anything, which has brought me out of my lurker status!)

Now I realize I live in Texas and it's summer, but at the most last year during this time was 250 dollars.

My machine runs for about 25-30 hours a week.
My exhaust system is a Penn State DC-3XL
Both Laser and Exhaust are on separate dedicated 20amp outlets.


Last but not least, Thanks all for the wonderful history here on this forum. It helped tremendously in making the right decisions the first time around.

[Art Mann]

If I got the model correct, your DC consumes 1920W continuously running according to Penn State. The Trotec might consume an additional 300W. That would be a total of ~2200W or 2.2kW. Your usage of 25-30 hours per week comes out to around 60kW-hr/week or around 250kW-hr per month. I don't know what rate you pay for power, but if it were $0.09/kW-hr, then it would cost around $23/month to run the two devices. These are just ballpark figures based on a limited amount of information and a little educated guessing.

[Michael Hunter]

Lasers don't turn electricity into IR power very efficiently.

The 300W estimate for the Trotec is probably not too far off for when it is idle.
When it is running, the consumption will be much more.

My 60W Epilog measures about 1500W when cutting at full power, 500 to 1000W when engraving.

[john banks]

We use about 2.5kW average considering the duty cycle of the most powerful item which is the air compressor. Our exhaust uses only 550W. Heating in winter along with other stuff it can peak at 6kW. Even then, the economics stack up as if we take our most profitable day so far and were able to replicate it for 10 days it would cost us $60 in electricity but bring in enough profit to buy the machine and its accessories/spares again. In that calculation the owner would be working for nothing, but still, finding profitable work is literally a hundred times more important than the electricity bill.

[Mike Null]

I think your spike in electric bills is weather related. Haven't you had an unusually hot summer? I don't see anything like that in my costs except when my AC is running constantly.

And welcome to SMC!

[Tim Drinkwater]

Keep in mind other factors as well. You probably have more lights on and are using more hot water now that your home is doubling as a shop. You're in Texas so I assume your shop has AC. Unless you are venting outside (even then the make up air will be hot outside air) then all of the heat that your equipment is creating is a significant heat load. Think of it like a 4000 watt space heater running while you have the AC on...

[Bob McGinn]

Suggest you contact your HVAC team... be sure to show them the Penn State DC-3XL.

[Dan Hintz]

Are you exhausting to the outside? If so, you have a lot of makeup air to re-cool every minute or two.

[Doug Wilson II]

My machine is 100w (if that matters). My shop is insulated and I vent up and out. That must be the culprit of the cabinet pulling air in from the DC-3xl and pumping it out!

That's so simple, yet I'm not sure why I didn't think of that. Thanks all!

[AL Ursich]

Do you have a new Digital Power Meter and are paying PRIME Time Rates while you play....

AL

[Anthony Scira]

If you are like is in CA you are on a tiered rate. Being summer you are more than likely in the higher tier. Our Tier 3 is 27 cents per kWh. And Tier 4 is like 31 or 32 cents per kWh. This adds up QUICKLY.

[Roger Lueck]

I experienced a similar situation a year ago regarding an extreme electrical bill and what caused it. I purchased a digital "plug in wattmeter" called Kill-A-Watt. I plugged the "watt meter" into an outlet and then plugged my power tool into the watt meter. The watt meter was accurate (within 2-3%) and tt didn't take long to discover the culprit of my increased power bill. Digital "plug in watt meters", such as the Kill-A-Watt, typically sell for about $30.00 for a 110V model. The downside to most "plug in" digital watt meters is that once you unplug the watt meter, the data (power usage) is gone. Also, if you are running your "shop equipment" on circuits which combine your personal and business power usage on a single electrical meter, you should consider a "sub-meter (Leviton is one brand) which will meter your business usage separate from your personal usage. Sub-meters are available for about $300.00 plus installation, a small price to pay when the IRS knocks on your door to audit you.

[Art Mann]

Lasers don't turn electricity into IR power very efficiently.

The 300W estimate for the Trotec is probably not too far off for when it is idle.
When it is running, the consumption will be much more.

My 60W Epilog measures about 1500W when cutting at full power, 500 to 1000W when engraving.

I stand corrected. I used my guess as an illustration of how one would go about getting an answer to his own question. It seems to me that, even if his machine is consuming 2000W, that doesn't explain his increase in power consumption. Much of his power bill increase is probably not coming from his engraving equipment.

[Michael Hunter]

The power consumption of the laser came as a surprise to me - I only measured it (with a cheapo plug-in domestic power meter) because I decided that I wanted to add a UPS to the system (and found that I needed a really big one!).

[Anthony Scira]

Oh yeah and once on that tiered rate once you are paying that 31 cent per kWh that is for everything you are running in your house. We had solar panels installed so our first 30-40 kWh per day are free and keep us way clear of any higher tiers.

[Dave Sheldrake]

CO2 lasers are between 12% and 18% plug efficiency for the tube alone. (+ the other ancillaries such as driver cards etc) my smaller 180 watt machine pulls about 3kW at full power from a 240 supply.

cheers

Dave