Phase perfect/correct electrical billing/metering??/what’s your kWh rate these days?

[Stirling]

Me and my brother are comparing bills tonight.
I have a 20hp phase perfect running a 20hp lathe and 20hp mill,
Full time one man band.
Last moth I ran about 100 -150 spindle hours? (Don’t judge :p. )

He does not work at home at all, just a normal household. No hot tub or silly power burners.
Both our wives are at home all day with kids. So typical usage.
We both burned approx850 kWh last month…(northern Canada, gas heat tho)

It just seems off.
Like the meter does not read my actual usage? I’ve done no real math, but my billed usage seems low. Always has.

Looking at my historical usage this year I never burned over 1200kwh ( summer time bill, 300-400 spindle hours that month between the 2 machines)

One man garage bands, what’s your kWh usage like?

Any size shop, what’s your effective kWh rate? (Total price including all fees/kwh actual usage)
Mines 0.235/kWh (good thing I locked the rate many months ago. Locked the power rate at .0.075/kWh. The rest is fees….)(my brothers effective rate is $0.481/kWh. He did not lock in his rate this summer…. Lives 2 blocks away)

 

[Ox]

Good grief!
I don 't care if that IS Loonie money, that sounds awfully high!
No hydro dams in your area?

Must be a line item fee in there somewhere.


I think that we are at prox $.125 USF for farm/single phase.
I don't know/think that there is any other line items beyond that.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[mhajicek]

I burn way more power heating the shop and compressing air than spinning the CM-1. I'd have to ask the wife what our consumption and expense is.

 

[latheman78]

You aren't drawing anywhere close to nameplate horsepower. Is that where the confusion is from?

 

[SND]

I'm at the other end of the country(the o is silent these days), the shop uses around 21-25kwh/day in summer and maxes around 43kwh/day in jan/feb.
I have a 18k/btu heatpump going 24//7 to keep the shop at 68°F, 2 HRV air exchangers(I turn 1 off at night, one runs 24/7,I hate stale shop smell). lots of lighting, and a 2nd level that is heated with electric baseboards in winter(only 15°C) I pay average $0.185/kwh (CAD) all in.
20hp Phase perfect for the 20hp Doosan, 7.5hp mill, 7.5hp screw comp, and 10hp phase perfect for the manual machines(7.5hp lathe still runs almost every day). Usage is all over the place, I can have 2-3 machines running 80+hrs a week for a few weeks and then be picking on the 3hp manual lathe for a week with everything else quiet. My cnc lathe rarely shows more than 15-20% on the spindle for most of my turning, same for mill.

I didn't see much of a drop in price on the bill when I moved the machines out of the house and onto their own building/meter, I'd have to dig but it was only maybe $30 less per month. My bill for the last 2 months is $353 on the shop and $275 on the house, just got it today.

 

[Ox]

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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[Stirling]

You aren't drawing anywhere close to nameplate horsepower. Is that where the confusion is from?

I’m confused how I can run this equipment and have the same consumption as my neighbours house that does not have a full time CNC shop in the garage!
I don’t have a separate meter for my shop, but (and I’m not complaining) the power consumption always seems low for what I’m doing.

My fear is that it is for some odd reason not metering it correctly and I get hit with a “adjustment”
Or move one day and my costs go way up.
So, thought I’d ask around
I could be way out to lunch. I dunno

 

[Stirling]

I'm at the other end of the country(the o is silent these days), the shop uses around 21-25kwh/day in summer and maxes around 43kwh/day in jan/feb.
I have a 18k/btu heatpump going 24//7 to keep the shop at 68°F, 2 HRV air exchangers(I turn 1 off at night, one runs 24/7,I hate stale shop smell). lots of lighting, and a 2nd level that is heated with electric baseboards in winter(only 15°C) I pay average $0.185/kwh (CAD) all in.
20hp Phase perfect for the 20hp Doosan, 7.5hp mill, 7.5hp screw comp, and 10hp phase perfect for the manual machines(7.5hp lathe still runs almost every day). Usage is all over the place, I can have 2-3 machines running 80+hrs a week for a few weeks and then be picking on the 3hp manual lathe for a week with everything else quiet. My cnc lathe rarely shows more than 15-20% on the spindle for most of my turning, same for mill.

I didn't see much of a drop in price on the bill when I moved the machines out of the house and onto their own building/meter, I'd have to dig but it was only maybe $30 less per month. My bill for the last 2 months is $353 on the shop and $275 on the house, just got it today.

Funny how $30 turned to $350 once on a different meter. Any explanation or is it just the fee structure?
Or all the electric heating.
WHY electric heating? No natural gas where you are at?
You know……. I could get a pipeline built that way…….. :p

I’d be curious what your fee structure is like. Is it regulated there? Gov? Private?
Alberta is open market for good or bad

 

[SND]

In my area we get billed every 2 months. So that $353 is just $176.50/month. It is regulated, Emera is the provider.
The base charge is $10.83/month. We only pay 5% GST to the regime, no PST.

Big difference is when my shop was attached to the house I had no heat pump and no AC. Wood stove in the house + machine/lights kept everything at the right temp in winter. I also added another deep freezer in the attached garage once the machines were out so power use went up a little, hot water is also electric (no gas/oil anything) Just electric and wood. (no water in the new shop, I can walk 20')
Also worth adding my buildings are all ICF and super well insulated all around, main loss is just the HRV but small price to pay for cleaner air.

 

[BT Fabrication]

about 500-600kwh for just my house. my shop barely changes my power bill in ontario maybe 100kwh at most.
most machines only pull avg 20-30% of name plate power, as idling or power on is less then an amp. kwh is only used in the cut.
20 hp is only a 15kw spindle max feed. so a little math, lets say you use 40-50% spindle hp in cut, that works out to probably a 10kw continuous power at 50% so 5 kw.
in cut hp time is probably 40% utilization of that cycle time so lets say 3kw of a total program per hour. so 3 KWH
add in loading and you can easily be 50% of an hour. cycle start time depending on program
so at lets say 1.5kwh per hr run, would take 100 hrs at 1.5kwh is about 150kwh to 225kwh extra. so it sounds about right per machine.
about 25 cents per kwh is about $50 a month at 200kwh used over 100-150 hrs
if the machines ran full 100% or 200% load(100% rated amperage of the motor) you might use 2-4x the power if it was a massive die doing 20hr cycle times removing 20 cu in. of material per minute with a huge face mill.
small end mills barely use a couple hp in most machines.
hope this makes sense

 

[Stirling]

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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Don’t show that stat to our lord prime minister JT. He will ban legally owned Cessna’s next.

**soft voice**
After this tragedy we simply cannot allow assault style 152 2 seaters planes.
Why would anyone need this in society.