Watt meter

[Zackdog]

After reading about people here using a watt meter to determine electrical consumption of their stoves, I visited my local Electric Co-op and borrow a unit. It is too warm right now to be burning the stove, but I turned it on and took some readings and was pleasantly surprised at how little electricity it uses. My stove is manual and always run it on the lowest setting. The average watts used at this setting was 28 watts. At my current electric rate, this amounts to $.0026 per hour of operation.

I will be plugging it in when I start running the stove to check the usage over a period of time instead of the instantaneous reading to see if it is different.

 

[Swaybar]

Wow, that is only about 20kW per month. At .12 a kilowatt for example you are talking $2.40 a month!

 

[Lousyweather]

Zack- I just got a killawatt a while back...was waiting for truly cold weather to see how much my p61 uses........I'll do it for a 24 hour period...should be interesting indeed

 

[Shortstuff]

I used my Kill-a-Watt meter last year during a cold month and used approximately $9.60 worth of electricity to run my pellet stove.

Steve

 

[Shaner]

I have a kill a watt and go around the house and measure different appliances. It drives my wife nuts but has also made her see just how much money you can spend on electricity.

BTW Steve -- Happy Veterans day (in advance). Thank you for your service to our country!

Shane

 

[imacman]

....BTW Steve -- Happy Veterans day (in advance). Thank you for your service to our country! Shane

I second that.....thank you Steve

 

[Shortstuff]

Thanks guys! And I'm sure that there are many, many members of Hearth.com who are veterans as well and I also extend my personal THANK YOU to each and every one of them.

By the way, in case any of our veterans have not heard about this:

Using your favorite search engine (I use Yahoo and Google), type in "free meals for veterans" and you'll find dozens of restaurants throughout the country offering free meals to ANY veteran whether you are active duty, retired or ever served in the military - on Veterans Day. For example Applebees' restaurant is doing this and for proof you can simply show them a picture of yourself in uniform and that is acceptable.

All veterans check this out!

Steve

 

[timbo]

Thanks guys! And I'm sure that there are many, many members of Hearth.com who are veterans as well and I also extend my personal THANK YOU to each and every one of them.

By the way, in case any of our veterans have not heard about this:

Using your favorite search engine (I use Yahoo and Google), type in "free meals for veterans" and you'll find dozens of restaurants throughout the country offering free meals to ANY veteran whether you are active duty, retired or ever served in the military - on Veterans Day. For example Applebees' restaurant is doing this and for proof you can simply show them a picture of yourself in uniform and that is acceptable.

All veterans check this out!

Steve

I saw that on TV the other day...I think I may take them up on that...I'll just drag my DD214 along with me.

 

[coldgeo]

I also have a tempest stove since 1995, it just broke the auger motor shaft. Anyone know where I could find another one. The manufacturer is long out of business.
I'm waiting to hear from the motor manu people, and also starting to search the net

 

[imacman]

I also have a tempest stove since 1995, it just broke the auger motor shaft. Anyone know where I could find another one. The manufacturer is long out of business.
I'm waiting to hear from the motor manu people, and also starting to search the net

ColdGeo, you need to post this on the forum in it's own thread....nobody is going to see it buried at the end of this one. Make sure you include the make & model in the title.

 

[Kenny1]

Zack- I just got a killawatt a while back...was waiting for truly cold weather to see how much my p61 uses........I'll do it for a 24 hour period...should be interesting indeed

I think that you might find that the stove uses more power in the shoulder seasons (when it is cycling on and off). The igniter draws a wack of current.

I did some measurements a couple of years ago and found:

When starting up (ignitor is on and the auger is running), the draw was 372W.
When the ignitor stops, and the auger is running and the distribution fan is on lo, the power draw is 128W.
With the auger is running and the distribution fan is on med, the power draw is 13.
With the auger is running and the distribution fan is on hi, the power draw is 152W.
Without the auger running and the distribution fan is on lo, the power draw is 93.6W. So the auger is drawing about 35W.
Finally, in shut down mode, the unit was drawing about 46.1W.

Cheers

 

[Zackdog]

I finally fired up the stove at 5:00 pm yesterday and ran it until 7:30 this morning with the watt meter attached. Here are the results.

Fan on low setting and feed rate of .78 lb/hr--- 29-30 watts
cool down cycle--- 37 watts
Stove off---5 watts
Total electric cost for about 14 hrs of operation, including cool down was $.04. My electric rate is $.093/KWH.

I was surprised to see that the controls draw 5 watts even when the unit is off. During this time period I used 0 KWh of electricity in my baseboard heaters. The main floor temperature maintained 73-74 degrees, while the upstairs maintained 70-71 degrees. The outside temperature went from 21 degrees down to 13 degrees.

Mark

 

[teetah222]

I finally fired up the stove at 5:00 pm yesterday and ran it until 7:30 this morning with the watt meter attached. Here are the results.

Fan on low setting and feed rate of .78 lb/hr--- 29-30 watts
cool down cycle--- 37 watts
Stove off---5 watts
Total electric cost for about 14 hrs of operation, including cool down was $.04. My electric rate is $.093/KWH.

I was surprised to see that the controls draw 5 watts even when the unit is off. During this time period I used 0 KWh of electricity in my baseboard heaters. The main floor temperature maintained 73-74 degrees, while the upstairs maintained 70-71 degrees. The outside temperature went from 21 degrees down to 13 degrees.

Mark

Wow those are really good numbers. Including the lb/hr number. My power is about 1/3 that amount, so if I can ever start using my stove I should save a bunch of money. My wall heaters for the last month, and only keeping the house around 68 degrees, have already doubled my summer power bill. Really hope I can pull off .78 lb/hr of pellets! That would put my winter heat bill down to not much more than summer! I was having doubts, but this post gave me a bunch of hope.

 

[imacman]

My power is about 1/3 that amount, so if I can ever start using my stove I should save a bunch of money.......

Are you talking about your electric rate?

 

[MCPO]

I finally fired up the stove at 5:00 pm yesterday and ran it until 7:30 this morning with the watt meter attached. Here are the results.

Fan on low setting and feed rate of .78 lb/hr--- 29-30 watts
cool down cycle--- 37 watts
Stove off---5 watts
Total electric cost for about 14 hrs of operation, including cool down was $.04. My electric rate is $.093/KWH.

I was surprised to see that the controls draw 5 watts even when the unit is off. During this time period I used 0 KWh of electricity in my baseboard heaters. The main floor temperature maintained 73-74 degrees, while the upstairs maintained 70-71 degrees. The outside temperature went from 21 degrees down to 13 degrees.

Mark

Good God Pleeze tell me I missed something here or maybe you did. I really hate to call you out on your extremely low pellet use figures to heat your house when the outside temps plunge because exaggerations can be very misleading .
Anyway, .78 lbs of pellets per hour isn`t much heat , maybe around 4-5K BTU after heat losses up the stack and I`ve not yet heard of a space heater running on low that could heat a house to 74 degrees when the outdoor temps went down to 13 degrees.
And all this on a 12 yr old pellet stove running on low?

That said ,I wish my kwhr rate was .09. I`d probably think about going back to electric heat.

 

[teetah222]

My power is about 1/3 that amount, so if I can ever start using my stove I should save a bunch of money.......

Are you talking about your electric rate?

Yep.

 

[Zackdog]

[/quote]Good God Pleeze tell me I missed something here or maybe you did. I really hate to call you out on your extremely low pellet use figures to heat your house when the outside temps plunge because exaggerations can be very misleading .
Anyway, .78 lbs of pellets per hour isn`t much heat , maybe around 4-5K BTU after heat losses up the stack and I`ve not yet heard of a space heater running on low that could heat a house to 74 degrees when the outdoor temps went down to 13 degrees.
And all this on a 12 yr old pellet stove running on low?

That said ,I wish my kwhr rate was .09. I`d probably think about going back to electric heat.[/quote]

Gio,
The .78 lb/hour figure is based on last year's total burn. The stove was on (auger on) 1600 hours and I used 51 bags of pellets, you do the math. Being a manual stove, I record start and stop times on a spread sheet for each month to come up with the burn hours. I also read my electric meter to my sub-panel that only my baseboard heaters come out of at 7 am and 7 pm every day. These are also entered on a spread sheet, so I know how much electricity my baseboard heaters are using. My spread sheets are in Quatro pro if you are interested and I could send them to you if you would like.

I also have two weather stations. One gives me outdoor temperature and second floor temperature, while the other gives the temperature on the main floor, where the stove is and the temperature in my un-heated basement. I will try to post a graph of the last two days temperatures. My home was built in 1988 and each floor is about 700 sq. ft. and a very open floor plan.

Mark

 

[Zackdog]

The 12th was a fairly sunny warm day, while the 13th was fairly cloudy and cool.

Mark

 

[MCPO]

Good God Pleeze tell me I missed something here or maybe you did. I really hate to call you out on your extremely low pellet use figures to heat your house when the outside temps plunge because exaggerations can be very misleading .
Anyway, .78 lbs of pellets per hour isn`t much heat , maybe around 4-5K BTU after heat losses up the stack and I`ve not yet heard of a space heater running on low that could heat a house to 74 degrees when the outdoor temps went down to 13 degrees.
And all this on a 12 yr old pellet stove running on low?

That said ,I wish my kwhr rate was .09. I`d probably think about going back to electric heat.[/quote]

Gio,
The .78 lb/hour figure is based on last year's total burn. The stove was on (auger on) 1600 hours and I used 51 bags of pellets, you do the math. Being a manual stove, I record start and stop times on a spread sheet for each month to come up with the burn hours. I also read my electric meter to my sub-panel that only my baseboard heaters come out of at 7 am and 7 pm every day. These are also entered on a spread sheet, so I know how much electricity my baseboard heaters are using. My spread sheets are in Quatro pro if you are interested and I could send them to you if you would like.

I also have two weather stations. One gives me outdoor temperature and second floor temperature, while the other gives the temperature on the main floor, where the stove is and the temperature in my un-heated basement. I will try to post a graph of the last two days temperatures. My home was built in 1988 and each floor is about 700 sq. ft. and a very open floor plan.

Mark[/quote]


Thanks Mark , I hadn`t realized that you use your electric heaters 12 hrs during the day and that yours is a fairly small house . Still, it has to be super insulated to maintain those stated 73-74 temps for those colder 12 hrs at night. I do envy that $.09 kwhr price though. (Mine`s $.18 )
Regardless, you are still doing unbelievably good by keeping the house that warm for the other 12 hrs that are normally colder with the pellet stove running on low. I do know that you don`t get a whole lot of heat out of a pellet stove at .78 lbs per hour , especially living in the mountains in Colorado.
Now lets see , .78 lbs equate to a 51 hr long burn out of a bag. I could be wrong but I think that`s nearly unheard of with most pellet stoves. I think most stoves would die out at that rate not to mention a low efficiency rating .
The best I can do with my small Harman P-38 is 36 hrs from a bag at the lowest setting. Maybe I need to look into one of those old units like you have.

 

[Zackdog]

Good God Pleeze tell me I missed something here or maybe you did. I really hate to call you out on your extremely low pellet use figures to heat your house when the outside temps plunge because exaggerations can be very misleading .
Anyway, .78 lbs of pellets per hour isn`t much heat , maybe around 4-5K BTU after heat losses up the stack and I`ve not yet heard of a space heater running on low that could heat a house to 74 degrees when the outdoor temps went down to 13 degrees.
And all this on a 12 yr old pellet stove running on low?

That said ,I wish my kwhr rate was .09. I`d probably think about going back to electric heat.

Gio,
The .78 lb/hour figure is based on last year's total burn. The stove was on (auger on) 1600 hours and I used 51 bags of pellets, you do the math. Being a manual stove, I record start and stop times on a spread sheet for each month to come up with the burn hours. I also read my electric meter to my sub-panel that only my baseboard heaters come out of at 7 am and 7 pm every day. These are also entered on a spread sheet, so I know how much electricity my baseboard heaters are using. My spread sheets are in Quatro pro if you are interested and I could send them to you if you would like.

I also have two weather stations. One gives me outdoor temperature and second floor temperature, while the other gives the temperature on the main floor, where the stove is and the temperature in my un-heated basement. I will try to post a graph of the last two days temperatures. My home was built in 1988 and each floor is about 700 sq. ft. and a very open floor plan.

Mark[/quote]


Thanks Mark , I hadn`t realized that you use your electric heaters 12 hrs during the day and that yours is a fairly small house . Still, it has to be super insulated to maintain those stated 73-74 temps for those colder 12 hrs at night. I do envy that $.09 kwhr price though. (Mine`s $.18 )
Regardless, you are still doing unbelievably good by keeping the house that warm for the other 12 hrs that are normally colder with the pellet stove running on low. I do know that you don`t get a whole lot of heat out of a pellet stove at .78 lbs per hour , especially living in the mountains in Colorado.
Now lets see , .78 lbs equate to a 51 hr long burn out of a bag. I could be wrong but I think that`s nearly unheard of with most pellet stoves. I think most stoves would die out at that rate not to mention a low efficiency rating .
The best I can do with my small Harman P-38 is 36 hrs from a bag at the lowest setting. Maybe I need to look into one of those old units like you have.[/quote]

Sorry Gio, I was wrong, it should have been 1600 hr/51 bags=31.37 hr/bag . 40 lb/bag/31.37hr/bag=1.28 lb/hr. What I originally posted should have said .78 hrs per lb.

The house is very well insulated and was designed and situated to take full advantage of the abundant Colorado sunshine. If you notice on the temperature graphs, from 7 am on the 12th to 7 am the 13th my pellet cost was zero and the electric heaters only kicked on at night. From 7 am the 13th to 7 am the 14th I used only 2 KWH from 7 until the sun came out. I started the stove at 5 pm and ran it all night and used no electricity for the baseboard heaters.

 

[MCPO]

Good God Pleeze tell me I missed something here or maybe you did. I really hate to call you out on your extremely low pellet use figures to heat your house when the outside temps plunge because exaggerations can be very misleading .
Anyway, .78 lbs of pellets per hour isn`t much heat , maybe around 4-5K BTU after heat losses up the stack and I`ve not yet heard of a space heater running on low that could heat a house to 74 degrees when the outdoor temps went down to 13 degrees.
And all this on a 12 yr old pellet stove running on low?

That said ,I wish my kwhr rate was .09. I`d probably think about going back to electric heat.

Gio,
The .78 lb/hour figure is based on last year's total burn. The stove was on (auger on) 1600 hours and I used 51 bags of pellets, you do the math. Being a manual stove, I record start and stop times on a spread sheet for each month to come up with the burn hours. I also read my electric meter to my sub-panel that only my baseboard heaters come out of at 7 am and 7 pm every day. These are also entered on a spread sheet, so I know how much electricity my baseboard heaters are using. My spread sheets are in Quatro pro if you are interested and I could send them to you if you would like.

I also have two weather stations. One gives me outdoor temperature and second floor temperature, while the other gives the temperature on the main floor, where the stove is and the temperature in my un-heated basement. I will try to post a graph of the last two days temperatures. My home was built in 1988 and each floor is about 700 sq. ft. and a very open floor plan.

Mark

Thanks Mark , I hadn`t realized that you use your electric heaters 12 hrs during the day and that yours is a fairly small house . Still, it has to be super insulated to maintain those stated 73-74 temps for those colder 12 hrs at night. I do envy that $.09 kwhr price though. (Mine`s $.18 )
Regardless, you are still doing unbelievably good by keeping the house that warm for the other 12 hrs that are normally colder with the pellet stove running on low. I do know that you don`t get a whole lot of heat out of a pellet stove at .78 lbs per hour , especially living in the mountains in Colorado.
Now lets see , .78 lbs equate to a 51 hr long burn out of a bag. I could be wrong but I think that`s nearly unheard of with most pellet stoves. I think most stoves would die out at that rate not to mention a low efficiency rating .
The best I can do with my small Harman P-38 is 36 hrs from a bag at the lowest setting. Maybe I need to look into one of those old units like you have.[/quote]

Sorry Gio, I was wrong, it should have been 1600 hr/51 bags=31.37 hr/bag . 40 lb/bag/31.37hr/bag=1.28 lb/hr. What I originally posted should have said .78 hrs per lb.

The house is very well insulated and was designed and situated to take full advantage of the abundant Colorado sunshine. If you notice on the temperature graphs, from 7 am on the 12th to 7 am the 13th my pellet cost was zero and the electric heaters only kicked on at night. From 7 am the 13th to 7 am the 14th I used only 2 KWH from 7 until the sun came out. I started the stove at 5 pm and ran it all night and used no electricity for the baseboard heaters.[/quote]


That explains it all in full. Thanks Mark.
I appreciate your replies to get me straight on this.

 

[tjnamtiw]

I saw that on TV the other day...I think I may take them up on that...I'll just drag my DD214 along with me.

Got my Bloomin Onion and drink at Outback on Vet's Day. Submariner here. That helps explain why I'm crazy.

My local Home Depot gives me 10% discount all the time. It's up to the local manager but groan enough and you can turn him. I get the 10% at Lowes too because I play them one against the other.

 

[tjnamtiw]

My power is about 1/3 that amount, so if I can ever start using my stove I should save a bunch of money.......

Are you talking about your electric rate?

Yep.

Well, I'll bite! Your electric rate is about $0.03 per KWH???? Do you have solar power? If not, then divide your TOTAL monthly bill by the number of KWH used to get the true cost. There's NWIH that it's that low..... sorry, unless you have solar or wind power.

 

[Zackdog]

My power is about 1/3 that amount, so if I can ever start using my stove I should save a bunch of money.......

Are you talking about your electric rate?

Yep.

Well, I'll bite! Your electric rate is about $0.03 per KWH???? Do you have solar power? If not, then divide your TOTAL monthly bill by the number of KWH used to get the true cost. There's NWIH that it's that low..... sorry, unless you have solar or wind power.

He's from Washington, think hydro electric power. I wouldn't doubt his $.03 per KWH. My actual energy charge is $.093 per KWH, but they also charge a $25 per month access charge.

Mark

 

[MCPO]

This is about the best and most current chart i could find that lists average KWHR rates for each state.


(broken link removed to http://www.neo.ne.gov/statshtml/115.htm)