calculating btu load

[2011laramie]

So my garage is already complete but im just curious as to how often my heater runs and how long. I should be able to just use a "Kill a watt" 110v meter on the cord to my modine 45000 btu heater. If I leave it for a week it should have a total kwh used for how often the fan runs correct? Based on the number of hours used per week I should be able to calculate a rough estimate of my btu used.

 

[rburke65]

Sounds like a plan.

 

[Nowater]

Does that heater burn fuel, or is it all electric resistance? Does the fuel consumption modulate (vary with time?)

 

[Stuart in MN]

Does that heater burn fuel, or is it all electric resistance? Does the fuel consumption modulate (vary with time?)

That heater burns gas, so the Kill-A-Watt will only monitor the electric fan. However, he can use that to figure out how much it runs in a week.

 

[2011laramie]

Ordered up an meter. Hopefully it arrives while the weather is still cold so I can see how often its running in this cold snap.

 

[KoRNTERA]

Don't forget to calculate for efficiency.
45,000 BTUs X .8 is 36,000 output BTUs assuming its 80% efficient. Keep in mind it will only average your heat loss.

No need to run it for a week just go out on a cold night and watch in run for 3 hours and it will give you a good BTU loss of the structure if that's all your looking for.

 

[2011laramie]

Ya I didnt forget about the efficiency calc. Im just doing this to compare my rough calc for heat losses vs recording the heat loss using my heater run time.