As others said, get a meter. To estimate it figure that any of the
welders (MIG or stick) run at about 25 volts (+/-) Multiply by your
welding amperage. Example: 100 amps would be 2500 watts. Running it 100%
for an hour would be 2.5 kwh. Running at 40% duty cycle (that's pushing
it!) would be 1 kwh per hour. Or 200 amps from the Ideal Arc at 75% duty
cycle would be would 3.75kwh per hour. (Hot and fast for that one!) At
$.15 per kwh, you might be able to push any extra $.60 an hour of
electricity though the meter. BTW: the power factor on these machines is
not the greatest, the amperage draw is higher than it should be, but
your power meter only registers the REAL useage.

monkers wrote:
I have had a recent increase in my electric bill (two actually) and was
curious how to find out the amount of electric used for various types
of welders. I have a Lincoln 110v Mig, Lincoln Ideal Arc 250 220v arc
welder, and a Lincoln Square Wave 175 Tig welder, also 220v.
I would like to know how much elec. is used when the machines
are welding at about 50-75% of their duty cycle. Im trying to figure
out how much to charge to make up for the increase.
Thanks, Craig