Electric Heat Cost??

[george2c]

I just put an ouilet 10,000 watt electric heater in my 24 x 32 garage. My electric cost is 7 cents per kwh. if this heater ran for 1 hour straight what does it cost me? I have it figured to be 70 cents. Is this correct? What about the blower that is in this unit that blows the heat, what does it cost? thanks.

 

[porcupine73]

Figuring just a straight resistive heatnig load at 10,000 watts, that would be 10kW per hour. So yes at 7 cents per kWh you would be looking at 70 cents per hour of operation.

The fan/blower load is probably on top of that. I don't know how big a fan you have but figure a couple hundred watts extra for that or so. The motor load is going to have an inductive component to it but may be power factor corrected; so if you're not paying any power factor penalty (which usually is only for commercial or industrial power feeds).

 

[george2c]

Thankyou, I am figuring it will cost atleast as much for the blower as the actual heat. So I guess In my mind I am thinking if it runs for 1 hour straight it will cost me about 2 dollars.

 

[porcupine73]

I don't think the fan/blower will draw 10,000 watts. I would guess maybe 300 watts at the most. I mean that would be like hurricane gail force winds from a 10kW fan. See if the fan motor nameplate has any data on it such as FLA (full load amps), voltage, phase, etc; that would give a reasonable estimate as to what the fan is drawing.

 

[george2c]

700 cfm if that helps. Thanks

 

[porcupine73]

That's the airflow, 700 cubic feet per minute. Similar fans seem to be in the 200 to 300 watt range depending on style, etc. So figure an extra 2 cents an hour or so for the fan.

 

[george2c]

ok So heck even figure around a buck an hour. That just seems to cheap. I have been playing with it lately on a few of these cool nights and it really pumps the heat.

 

[porcupine73]

Sounds good. Electric has its advantages, clean, quiet, no venting required.

 

[Falcon67]

ok So heck even figure around a buck an hour. That just seems to cheap. I have been playing with it lately on a few of these cool nights and it really pumps the heat.

When it gets solid cold and you run it to maintain some level and say it runs 25% of the time (6 hrs out of 24) that's $130/mth @ .72/hr.

 

[george2c]

Yep gotchs therecan ad up quick. I am not going to be using it everyday or maintaining a constant heat. This is just a gargae to tinker around and drink some beer in.