Gunner wrote:

On 25 Mar 2005 20:04:45 -0800, jim rozen
wrote:

In article , Gunner says...

I asked the guy down at the PG^E payment office about running a
welder, and he flat told me even a buzzbox on weekends would tend to
double my rates. My bills appear to reflect that.

The reason for this is obvious - your overall electric consumption
is pretty minimal otherwise. The compact fluorescent lamps,
the gas fired appliances, etc.

Computers don't really burn that much power. I bet the biggest
power-hog in your domicile is the refrigerator. In some sense,
the fact that the welder makes such a big impact in your bill
is a badge of success. It means that most times your meter
just barely ticks over.

Compare that to me, with an electric dryer, and a full time
dehumidifier in the shop. Granted the first hardly gets used
in the summertime, and the second cannot (and need not) be
used in the winter. House ACs are small and only do two rooms,
but in the NY summer they can be on for a couple of months,
steady.

Now I turn on a welder, run the shortest bead I can get away with,
then turn it right back off. I dont have any Power Factor caps in
the welders that I know of.

Power factor capacitors won't improve your rate of meter spin. The
meter *only* looks at real power, not reactive power - and power
factor correction capacitors reduce only reactive, or out-of-phase,
current.

Something tells me that the reason you're having trouble
reducing your power bill is, you've already done a 90 percent
job of doing so. The last ten percent is the toughest.

So why is my bill $150 normal, going to $300 when I turn on a welder?

What did you finally do with your dry well, did you go the
sulfuric route?

Still not done anything yet. Ive been sick, broke and swamped with
other stuff. Its something I need to adress ASAP though.

Gunner


Jim

Lathe Dementia. Recognized as one of the major sub-strains of the
all-consuming virus, Packratitis. Usual symptoms easily recognized
and normally is contracted for life. Can be very contagious.
michael

Suggestion: Measure just how much power the welder is really using
(more-or-less)

Power meters aren't mysterious black boxes, just write down the meter
reading before and after a welding project and see how many KWH were
used.

Granted you still have the "background" use of the rest of the house,
but as you noted it's all CF lights and gas stove/dryer so the
background use should be fairly constant.

If you want to eliminate it just down the times you took the readings as
well and take another set of reading immediately after the welding
project over the same duration and subtract that reading from the first.
You should get something reasonably close to the true KWH used by the
welding.

Pete C.