Electricity (1 Viewer)

[ernesto]

Heating is a wood pellet boiler. Fire in the boiler heats a water reservoir within the boiler. It lets the fire go out when the reservoir reaches a certain temp, then an electric element is used to get it going again - that's one source of electicity use. There's a fan on the flue that runs when the fire is going - that's another. Those are going all the time, even when the heating in the house is turned off

(though obvs they go more when the heating in the house is on, because the house is drawing heat from the boiler reservoir so it takes more fire to keep it hot)

When the heating in the house is turned on, the water in the boiler reservoir is used to heat the water in the central heating system, and there's a pump to move the water around. Another source of electricity use

I knew the boiler used some electricity, but had never considered before that it might be a heavy user

Anyone know of any way to measure something like that? None of the components (boiler, fan, pump) have a plug, but maybe there's something I can attach around the wires going into them to measure the kWh used?

Anything with an element or motor is going to use a decent bit of juice

 

[egg_]

You can, but you can also google the model's spec sheet?

I have 3 different components (actually 4 cos there's also the motor that powers the augur that feeds the pellets into the boiler) and they all come on and off intermittently. If I had something to clamp onto to the cable that comes into the boiler house over 24 hours I think I'd get a better picture

 

[ann post]

I have 3 different components (actually 4 cos there's also the motor that powers the augur that feeds the pellets into the boiler) and they all come on and off intermittently. If I had something to clamp onto to the cable that comes into the boiler house over 24 hours I think I'd get a better picture

I think a clamp meter thing would do a certain amount of that- My mate also got a wild electricty bill and they are a creature of routine without any silly welding sauna type hobbies.

 

[magicbastarder]

just heard an 'ad' on nova; one of the wacky morning show presenters, doing a 'we're doing this in conjunction with prepay power dot ie, to give you tips on energy conservation' style PSAs.

anyway, he explains that the short cycle on your washing machine is not necessarily more energy efficient than a long cycle - which is true. but he goes on to explain that 80% of the energy used is in heating water - and in a short cycle, it heats the water to '40 or 60 or whatever' in a short time, whereas on a long cycle, it takes longer to heat the water to that temperature, which uses less energy.

 

[ann post]

It always takes the same amount of energy to heat something though.

 

[magicbastarder]

Yeah, an incredibly basic error for supposedly factual content.