| Author | Content |
phicks
Lakeland, FL
(Zone 9b)
August 19, 2009
12:59 PM Post #6965016
| Sams has these for under 400 good way to cut your Eltric Bill get rid of the 240 stove Paul |
Rocco
Tulsa, OK
(Zone 7a)
August 31, 2009
09:29 PM Post #7010684
| You won't save by lowering the voltage. The elements on a range are resistive and the power comsumed is volts times amps. If for a given amount of cooking power, as an example, five amps are required at 240 volts, ten amps would be drawn at 120 volts, In either case you are consuming 1.2 kw. |
phicks
Lakeland, FL
(Zone 9b)
September 05, 2009
12:42 PM Post #7028620
| LOL |
Rocco
Tulsa, OK
(Zone 7a)
September 05, 2009
03:09 PM Post #7029112
| Phicks
I posted a response to your "lower the voltage" entry. My response is technically correct and cannot be disputed. For that I receive an LOL. Does that mean that you thought my post was very funny or that you don't believe what I wrote. I would appreciate an explanation. |
phicks
Lakeland, FL
(Zone 9b)
September 05, 2009
03:21 PM Post #7029173
| Rocco all i can say is sents i got rid of all the 240 Applinces in my home my bill has droped close to 200 a month Paul |
dparsons01
Albuquerque, NM
(Zone 7b)
October 26, 2009
02:05 PM Post #7210430
| Newer appliances are frequently more efficient, but for reasons other than voltage. Changing from 240 to 120 volts won't decrease your power consumption at all. |
Horseshoe
Efland, NC
(Zone 7a)
November 01, 2009
10:14 PM Post #7232001
| Glad I found this thread.
Rocco and/or dparsons, can one of you tell me how to figure up "kilowatt hours"? I was trying to determine if something (a big cooler/fridge, for example) that used X number of watts (or amps?) how to figure out how many kilowatts (or kilowatt hours) it used.
Is there a formula for that somewhere?
Thanks!
Shoe |
dparsons01
Albuquerque, NM
(Zone 7b)
November 02, 2009
01:46 AM Post #7232561
| A Watt is a unit of power - energy (Joules) per second. A 100 Watt light bulb uses up 100 Joules of energy every second.
A kilowatt-hour is also a quantity of energy. It is the amount of energy that comes from using energy at a rate of 1000 (kilo) Watts for an hour. A kilowatt-hour is equal to 3,600,000 Joules of energy. A 100 Watt bulb would take 10 hours to consume a kilowatt-hour of energy.
You can also determine the rate energy is being consumed from the current (amps):
Power = current * voltage
Watts = amps * volts
On a 110 Volt line, 1 amp is consistent with a usage rate of 110 Watts. A 100 Watt light bulb uses slightly less than 1 amp (0.91). You can run 16 100 Watt light bulbs through a single 15 amp circuit breaker. |
Horseshoe
Efland, NC
(Zone 7a)
November 02, 2009
07:57 AM Post #7232874
| Great! Thanks! Just what I was looking for.
Now I can figure out how much some of these appliances are costing me to operate.
Much obliged, dparsons.
Shoe |
Rocco
Tulsa, OK
(Zone 7a)
November 02, 2009
02:04 PM Post #7233989
| I'm pleased that this thread is still alive. I thought that I was alone fighting the 120 volt power saving battle. Thanks for the back up dparsons. A good explanation was given for the kilowatt hour calculation.
There have been ice storms in my area with power losses for many days. I purchased an 8.7KW generator for backup. I also purchases a digital power monitor so I could check the power consumption of various appliances including my gas furnace which requires 120 volt power. It is an easy to use device and reads volts, amps. power and stores data. It is available from UPM and is model EM-100. There are others but this one works great and cost around $30.00
This message was edited Nov 2, 2009 12:06 PM |
dparsons01
Albuquerque, NM
(Zone 7b)
November 02, 2009
03:33 PM Post #7234296
| Not a problem. Don't see it as a fight though, just a discussion. There are more important things than the power consumption of appliances. Still, having accurate information posted for members to read is important enough to be worth doing.
I don't have power meter, but consider a multi-meter to be a definite must-have for anybody who wants to do it themselves. There are too many things that can diagnosed from the charge on a battery to whether wires are connected or have any power. |
Horseshoe
Efland, NC
(Zone 7a)
November 02, 2009
05:25 PM Post #7234622
| Yes, I agree on having a multimeter, I use mine quite often. (And on the way home today I found out my neighbors well-pump breaker switch keeps kicking off so I guess I'll have it out tomorrow deducing the problem.
Thanks for the info on the power monitor, Rocco. I recently had the power company out here trying to find out why my electric bill is so high. Not much came out of his visit and I was disappointed. The reason for my question above was to figure out exactly what my bill should be for my "shoffice"...after all, I only run a computer, a tiny tv, a small deepfreezer, a large cooler, a well-pump that only turns on from time to time plus a few fluorescent lights. I can't believe those things would run up a bill over $200/month. Having one of those power meters sounds like a good idea.
Does that power meter read power just by holding a probe up to, or around, the appliance wire (or breaker wire)?
Shoe |
Rocco
Tulsa, OK
(Zone 7a)
November 02, 2009
06:15 PM Post #7234820
| Shoe
The power monitor has a standard electrical connection. The unit is plugged into the wall outlet or into an extension cord. The appliance, fridge, microwave, toaster,etc is then plugged into the unit and the data is displayed. You can also enter the cost per KW from your electric bill and it will calculate cost. I have measured and printed a list of the power consumption of all my electrical devices.
I checked my records and I had ordered the unit from smarthome.com. The cost was $29.99 plus shipping. It is available at several other web sites.
It is amazing how much power some appliances require, for instance a Mr Coffee brewer draws almost nine amps. That is more than one KW at 120 volts. |
Horseshoe
Efland, NC
(Zone 7a)
November 02, 2009
06:49 PM Post #7234909
| Thanks! I'll get online and check them out.
By the way, did you test any of your digital stuff? (computer, stereo, tv, etc) I tend to leave my computer on all the time and wondered if it was burning up dollars. I've always been under the assumption that tv's, stereos, and such used very little power but maybe I'm wrong.
Will Google a little bit later tonight and get one ordered!
Shoe |
dparsons01
Albuquerque, NM
(Zone 7b)
November 02, 2009
07:03 PM Post #7234959
| Heating water takes quite a bit of energy.
Horseshoe, $200 a month seems like too much. My energy bill hits $200 in the coldest part of winter and I live in an older house. A quick check on your place is to turn EVERYTHING off (unplug the fridge, freezer, etc.) and go see if your electric meter is still spinning like mad. If so, you have a short somewhere. If not then the power meter Rocco recommends will give you a gauge on your appliances one at a time. |
Horseshoe
Efland, NC
(Zone 7a)
November 02, 2009
07:38 PM Post #7235122
| Thanks, dp...
I think that cost is outrageous and can't figure out where it (electricity) is going to. I turned off my big fans in the greenhouse in July, disconnected the freezer (needed thawing out), only ran the A/C sporadically (shop is well insulated and only 12 X 21 ft).
If I turn off the main breaker on the breaker box and check the meter will it still show a short if it is still spinning? I was also wondering if it is the meter base; sometime in the past year they were replaced (we have two meter bases, one for house, one for shoffice) with some new kind that allows them to read the meter w/out even being here.
Thanks for the tip, I'll surely do that test.
Shoe |
phicks
Lakeland, FL
(Zone 9b)
November 10, 2009
04:02 PM Post #7260595
| Shoe if you have a hot water tank there check it make sure that you dont have a broken element Paul |
