Electricity cost for welding.

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Hi. I'm new to welding, anybody have any info for how much electricity cost for hobby welding (120v 140a, 240v 220a) .5-1 hr weld a day. cost =$?. @ low amp min amp and max amp.thanks
Reply:I started welding off my house power last summer.  After burning 50 pounds of rod at 105 amps on the machine, my wife comments, "wow, our electric didnt go up that much".Weldanpower 225 G7Ironworkers Local #24
Reply:Costs will vary sometimes wildly depending on your provider and the rates they charge per KWH as well as the equipment your using and the consistency with which your using it.  An example would be your time frame of lets say 1 hour during which you obviously will not be running one continuous bead for an entire 60 minutes.  Some guys will run say 6 beads during that hour with the rest of the time allocated to allow cooling as well as cleaning up the bead while other guys will run 50 beads with little or no time for cooling and cleaning.The best way to figure out your answer would be to first get an idea as to what machine your going to use then look at its specs and or contact the manufacturer to get an idea of what the pull is for electrical usage.  You can also get a device called a killowatt that plugs into the electrical outlette you would plug the machine into and it will show you how much electricity your using while the machine is running at use and sitting idle but on and sitting turned off but plugged in.  Once you have these numbers you then have to look at what the KWH charge is from your service provider and then get an average for the amount of time that your running your box at full duty as compared to when its sitting on but idle to get an idea as to how much your going to use.
Reply:It isn't much in comparison to the other hobby welding expenses such as fill metal, shield gas, tungstens, and so forth.But to compute the cost, it's pretty simple.Read the dataplate on the welder and look at the volts and amps.  Multiply those numbers together, and you get the number of volt-amps the machine will draw at max output amps.Volt-amps are different than watts, but the difference is beyond the scope of this discussion.So assume you have an inverter welder rated at 250 amps output, and draws 47 amps at 240 volts from the line.  That is 11,280 VA (~watts)... OR 11.28 kVA.  If we're welding at 125 amps, you would just divide that number in half... but for now lets assume max amps.Assume that you're paying $0.12/kWH.  That would be 12 cents per 1000 watts you use per hour.So running ten 100 watt light bulbs for one hour would cost you 12 cents.So to run your welder for one hour at max output you would pay 11.28*0.12 = $1.35Run for a half hour or at half amps and you would pay half that price ($0.68).  Run at half amps for a half hour and you wold pay a quarter that price ($0.34).Questions??   "Great spirits have always encountered violent oppostion from mediocre minds."  --  Albert Einstein
Reply:Those are pretty good examples.  Let me try to simplify it more if I can.You look at the welder's meters and you're running 150 amps @ 26 volts.Multiply those numbers together - 150 x 26 = 3900Since amps times the volts equals watts then you're welding with 3900 watts of electricity.Now comes an interesting point.  The efficiency of your machine.  That means "how efficient it is at converting line power to welding power".  A pretty crappy machine will have an efficiency rate of about 80%, where a more efficient machine will be closer to 94% or so.  You should be able to find its efficiency rate in the owners manual.For this simple example lets assume it has 90% efficiency rating at our 150 amps output.So simply divide our 3900 watts by 9 then multiply that sum by 10.3900 / 9 = 433.3 X 10 = 4,333 watts.Thats your total draw at the amps and volts you're welding with plus the in-efficiency of your machine to convert the electricity.And like said above, you can't weld 100% of the time so you now must guess at how much time you actually are welding during that hour period.  Lets assume its about 50% of the time.So 4,333 / 2 = 2,166 wattsThats your load on the grid averaged out over the entire hour.If you are paying the average $0.12 cents per 1000 watts of electricity based on an hour's worth of draw - then:$0.12 x 2.166KW = $0.26 per hourThat should be pretty close, and pretty easy to figure. Good luck
Reply:Thanks Guys a lot of information.
Reply:2500 a month
Reply:Originally Posted by Fat Bastard2500 a month
Reply:Originally Posted by Fat Bastard2500 a month
Reply:Let's just say I wish my "Gas Costs" equaled my electric costs.I'd be one happy camper.Syncro 250 DX Dynasty 200 DXMM 251 w/30A SG XMT 304 w/714 Feeder & Optima PulserHH187Dialarc 250 AC/DCHypertherm PM 1250Smith, Harris, Victor O/ASmith and Thermco Gas MixersAccess to a full fab shop with CNC Plasma, Water Jet, etc.
Reply:You pay more for the lights in the shop than for running the welder.Jack OlsenMy garage website
Reply:Originally Posted by Jack OlsenYou pay more for the lights in the shop than for running the welder.
Reply:Originally Posted by Fat BastardZackly We have some powerful inefficient lighting. Plus all the other normal stuff and the heat in the offices are electric baseboard. So it aint a real good comparison.