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Thread: Electric Bill

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
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    Austin, TX
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    590

    Electric Bill

    Wondering how much it actually costs, in electricity, to run the laser for say 40 hours a week. In my case, I also run the blower and chiller when the laser is running.

    I've never really thought about this explicitly before, but the last couple of months our electric bill (we work out of a home shop) has really shot up. Trying to determine if it's the extra lasering time, or if there's something else that we've got going on. It also doesn't help that we're on a tiered pricing scale; so once you get over 500kwh per month, it starts moving up considerably for additional usage.

    Plus, I don't think I've ever seen this discussed here. So I thought it'd be interesting to hear how much others have determined it costs where they live, and if it's enough to factor into your pricing during peak times; or if you just look at it as a fixed cost of doing business.
    60W, Boss Laser 1630
    75W, Epilog Legend 24EX
    Jet Left Tilting table saw and Jet 18" Band saw
    Adobe Creative suite and Laserworks 8

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by Keith Downing View Post
    Wondering how much it actually costs, in electricity, to run the laser for say 40 hours a week. In my case, I also run the blower and chiller when the laser is running.
    Plus, I don't think I've ever seen this discussed here. So I thought it'd be interesting to hear how much others have determined it costs where they live, and if it's enough to factor into your pricing during peak times; or if you just look at it as a fixed cost of doing business.
    Looking at he nameplate ratings, my 40 watt laser draws 400 watts, the exhaust fans 150, the water pump 60 and the blower 75 for a total laser related wattage of 685 watts. At a cost of 12 cents a KW, it is a little over 8 cents an hour. A 3kw electric heater adds 36 cents an hour and 600 watts of lights are another 7.2 cents. The laptop computer is about 150 watts for 2 cents. So the whole thing is about 65 cents an hour in winter.
    A laser tube replacement cost a little over $200 after a little over 300 hours for another 67 cents for a total of $1.32.

    So, with a slightly bigger laser, a slightly colder climate, a little bit more powerful fan and exhaust, you could figure 2 dollars an hour.

    Hope this helps.

  3. #3
    Our home is our business. What I have here that burns electricity:
    8 computers
    10 CNC rotary tool engravers
    3 C02 lasers
    1 Fiber laser
    3 HF 'green' blowers
    1 HF 'the bigger' blower
    1 3000 chiller (non-refer)
    1 old 20" vinyl cutter
    1 really old Delta drill press, floor model
    1 table mounted drill press
    1 HF mini lathe
    1 bench grinder
    2 tool grinders
    1 beveler
    1 cut-off bandsaw
    1 10" table saw
    1 10" radial arm saw
    1 4" or so safety saw
    1 80 gallon air compressor
    1 5 gallon air compressor
    70 (I just counted 'em) 32-40 watt florescent tubes to light the place up
    1 500 gallon hot tub
    Central air
    Portable refer AC (garage)
    Evap AC (garage)
    washer, dryer
    2 refrigerators (28cf, 19cf)
    2 freezers (20cf, 12cf)
    2 electric ovens
    assorted other lamps, TV's ---

    Last year was our best year by quite a margin, so it's fair to say we burned thru a few kWatts
    Summer is worst due to trying to keep cool, this is my 5 mW bill last mid-July/mid-August...
    augpwr.jpg

    And this is my latest bill, a mere 2.5 mWatts
    febpwr.jpg

    Now, this all might seem like a lot, but every other month I get a graph that tells me that we use -on average- 300% as much power as our neighbors. I'm actually pretty amazed it's ONLY 300%! And I always try to look for the silver linings, such as, our equal-pay bill is less than my wife's Mustang payment
    --and then there's the fact the power does help us make a decent living!
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  4. #4
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    Dennis, thanks for the reply. I'll have to do the math on that in the morning, seems lower than I expected though!

    Kev, you've got quite a bit of machining power there. The crazy part is I have basically just 1 laser running (though I do have 4 computers and 3 cable boxes) and we hit 2.2mW last month. I don't understand how it's that high for me and just a tad bit higher for you running that arsenal. Lol
    60W, Boss Laser 1630
    75W, Epilog Legend 24EX
    Jet Left Tilting table saw and Jet 18" Band saw
    Adobe Creative suite and Laserworks 8

  5. #5
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    Mar 2014
    Location
    Iowa USA
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    Quote Originally Posted by Keith Downing View Post
    Dennis, thanks for the reply. I'll have to do the math on that in the morning, seems lower than I expected though!

    Kev, you've got quite a bit of machining power there. The crazy part is I have basically just 1 laser running (though I do have 4 computers and 3 cable boxes) and we hit 2.2mW last month. I don't understand how it's that high for me and just a tad bit higher for you running that arsenal. Lol
    I think you need to re-read your power bill. Electric is billed in kWh. We usually run here around 800 to 1200 or so, and the cost per kWh is about 9 cents.
    Last edited by Bill George; 02-19-2018 at 8:47 AM.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  6. #6
    Keith,

    How do you heat your shop? Do you have a YOY comparison?

  7. #7
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    Austin, TX
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill George View Post
    I think you need to re-read your power bill. Electric is billed in kWh. We usually run here around 800 to 1200 or so, and the cost per kWh is about 9 cents.
    Our bill for February was 2,224 kwh. I assumed from Kev William's post that converted to 2.2Mw being billed. Apologies for the confusion if that assumption wasn't true.

    Matt, we don't heat the shop on a regular basis, though we did have to run a heater a few days since (as I'm sure you know) we had a colder than average winter in this area.

    In the last year our usage has only broken 2,000 kwh's in July and August when the AC was running 24/7. February the last 2 years was roughly 35-40% lower though, so somethings up.
    60W, Boss Laser 1630
    75W, Epilog Legend 24EX
    Jet Left Tilting table saw and Jet 18" Band saw
    Adobe Creative suite and Laserworks 8

  8. #8
    kW mW, as you can see in my bills, it's done in kilowatts.. we routinely look at 1,000 kb files on our computers and know it's a megabyte, I just did the same conversion!
    (and 'megawatts' just sound more impressive )

    oh, and beware electric heaters-- we have a mobile home some friends are renting from us, and I get the light bills in my emails. Last winter they bought one of those heaters advertised on TV, just a 1500w thing, and the light bill jumped $120 that first month.

    Me, I heat my garage shop with a wall mounted ventless heater...
    garheat1.jpg
    This one was all of $219 to my door from Ebay and works with LP or NG, which I'm using. Keeps the garage 65° for around a buck a day. Not particularly cheap either but the garage is mostly un-insulated so I'm not complaining. Another thing, I have 5 machines in the garage now, and usually 4 of them are on and/or running, and the heat they give off naturally can raise the temps in here 5 or 6 degrees easy...
    Last edited by Kev Williams; 02-19-2018 at 11:49 AM.
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Georgia, USA
    Posts
    394
    Keith -

    Does Boss still send the cheap Chinese big gray exhaust extraction fan? If so, those suck lots of power (and are loud!). The label on mine specs 550 watts. I bought a replacement from Amazon that uses a fraction of the power, has variable speed, is much quieter and still moves lots of air.
    700mm x 500mm Ke Hui KH-7050 Laser
    80W EFR F2
    S&A CW5000 chiller
    Chuck style of rotary attachment

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Keith Downing View Post
    Plus, I don't think I've ever seen this discussed here. So I thought it'd be interesting to hear how much others have determined it costs where they live, and if it's enough to factor into your pricing during peak times; or if you just look at it as a fixed cost of doing business.
    It has been discussed numerous times over the years. Here are some to get you started. Use the Advanced Search feature to locate more.

    https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....ost-Per-Minute

    https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....cal-bill!-Help!

    https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....gy-consumption!
    I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and I think, "Well, that’s not going to happen."

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Doug Fisher View Post
    Keith -

    Does Boss still send the cheap Chinese big gray exhaust extraction fan? If so, those suck lots of power (and are loud!). The label on mine specs 550 watts. I bought a replacement from Amazon that uses a fraction of the power, has variable speed, is much quieter and still moves lots of air.
    It's black not grey, but probably overkill yes. I'll check to see if it has a rating on it tomorrow.
    60W, Boss Laser 1630
    75W, Epilog Legend 24EX
    Jet Left Tilting table saw and Jet 18" Band saw
    Adobe Creative suite and Laserworks 8

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    Washington state
    Posts
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    Keith,
    There are a few things you can do, read your meter daily to learn your trend, my house normally uses 35-90 KWH a day, the best being Spring and the worst being last Winter when it was in the teens. I do this every evening at 7:00 pm and the days I miss, I use an average for the days missed. I also got an inline power meter 120volts, that I plug into to see actual power draw. Last Summer I replaced about 70 lights to LED, in an effort to reduce my power bill, which it did.
    Depending where you are at, you may be spending more money on heating or cooling your make-up air then running the equipment.
    Food for thought.
    Scott
    Rabbit Laser RL-60-1290, Rotary attachment, Corel Draw x6, Bobcad Ver 27
    Juki-LU 2810-7, Juki 1900 AHS, Juki LU-1508, Juki LH-3188-7, Juki LH 1182
    Sheffield 530 HC webbing cutter

  13. #13
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    Dec 2010
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    NW Arkansas
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    I've my lasers in my basement. NW Arkansas usually has pretty cold winters as compared to the rest of the south. Much closer to south Missouri, but we avoid a lot of the snow that passes thru Joplin and Springfield. December was Extreme. We had over a week at less than 5 degrees as a high. AND I had some of our extended family staying with us in part of the basement that is a bedroom.... It usually stays about 60-65 down here if the weather stays above freezing. It was getting down in the 55-60 degree range especially in my laser corner where I have a door and large windows and is the walkout side. So they ran a 1500watt portable heater. It costs us about $3 a day when they ran it over night. I can watch my daily usage via app, so it is nice to monitor. Laser, if I ran all day, I can see it go up, but my wife baking a two hour meal kicks it up more than all my equipment. So Yep watch out for any of the electric heaters. 1500w is 1500w, no matter what brand, shape or size.... Don't be fooled....
    Woodworking, Old Tools and Shooting
    Ray Fine RF-1390 Laser Ray Fine 20watt Fiber Laser
    SFX 50 Watt Fiber Laser
    PM2000, Delta BS, Delta sander, Powermatic 50 jointer,
    Powermatic 100-12 planer, Rockwell 15-126 radial drill press
    Rockwell 46-450 lathe, and 2 Walker Turner RA1100 radial saws
    Jet JWS18, bandsaw Carbide Create CNC, RIA 22TCM 1911s and others

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    St. Petersburg Florida
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    I added this all up for a large job a couple months ago and the cost was negligible. If you really want to find out what your set up is running get one of those watt meters you can plug into the outlet and it will tell you the draw and you can get the cost from there.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by kyle bonnell View Post
    I added this all up for a large job a couple months ago and the cost was negligible. If you really want to find out what your set up is running get one of those watt meters you can plug into the outlet and it will tell you the draw and you can get the cost from there.

    I have been keeping track with the Kill a Watt and also our city's newly launched consumption app.

    Mostly I believe it's just a lot of little things adding up for us. We don't use gas for anything so that's added some usage others don't experience (for heating, cooking, and laundry).

    As far as the added cost of the lasering, the one thing I forgot is probably a big part of ours. We have a big 60 gallon, 5hp, 220V air compressor. And when we're cutting that thing cycles about 30-40% of the time. Can't imagine that use is negligible, but I will do the math on it and try to keep track of how much it's running.
    60W, Boss Laser 1630
    75W, Epilog Legend 24EX
    Jet Left Tilting table saw and Jet 18" Band saw
    Adobe Creative suite and Laserworks 8

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