On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 03:29:07 GMT, Gunner
wrote:

On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 22:27:57 GMT, wmbjk
wrote:

On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 09:52:40 GMT, Gunner
wrote:

Ive been looking around for a genset for the homestead. Not so much
for emergency power, but to run my welders from. Emergency backup is
icing on the cake.

My normal monthly electric bill is $150 or so (**** you Gray
Davis!!!!) and it seems that the minute I turn a welder on..it goes to
$300 a month.

No can afford this sort of thing anymore.

Ah.... at say, 15 cents a kWhr, that $150 extra is 1000kWhrs. Even at
10kw draw (pretty heavy welding), that's 100 hours per month. Somehow
I doubt that.... But if you were using that much, a fair guess might
be 100+ gallons of diesel per month to supply it from a generator. So
if you get the generator for free, and if it never needs any
maintenance, and if you don't mind hauling a barrel of fuel every
couple weeks, then it will only cost about $100 a month extra to use
the generator. The more you weld, the higher the premium will be, and
the rising cost of fuel will make it even worse. If you really want to
save money, then buy an inverter-based machine. At 100 hours a month
of use, it would pay for itself in a couple of years.

But better yet, put one of these
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...1475 412&rd=1
on your appliances (especially your friggen computers!) one a time,
and I bet you'll figure out why your bills are so high. Check into TOU
utility rates as well.

And one last thing... you're using about three times as much
electricity as I do in your normal month, and sixth times as much in
your high months. That ain't Gray Davis's fault.

Wayne

Is your utility company Pacific Greed and Extortion?

Ill have to check the current bill and see how many kwH Im using. When
Im gone during the week, there is only one computer running 24/7 and
all the light bulbs in the house have been replaced with those
florescent replacements. The gas heater hasnt been run in a month,
nor has the swamp cooler in 6 months, and all the appliences,
including the dryer are gas.

Ill check into that gizmo.

Good idea. Things are not computing here at all. 10 hours of
welding (60 amps at 220 V) at an exorbitant $0.25/KWH would only
raise your electric bill about $33. That 10 hours would be actual
arc time. That's many lineal feet of weld. If you weld at one
foot per minute, it's 600 feet of weld. A welder that is switched
on but not actually welding doesn't draw much power; if it did, it'd
get very hot very quickly.

An unsuspected load like an iced-up dehumidifier can raise the bill a
lot, but that doesn't jibe with the spike you report when you do a
little welding.

I would definitely check the electric meter. Turn off all loads
you can spare, read the meter, read it again after an hour. Then turn
on a known load, perhaps a 1200 watt hotplate or whatever, do the
meter drill again and then do the math.

I have never had an electric bill of more than $150.