Energy Consumption

pyronaught · Post by **pyronaught** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 8:19 pm

Has anyone measured the total average current draw of a machine while it is printing for the purpose of trying to estimate the total energy cost per unit of time?

insta · Post by **insta** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 8:23 pm

I have a Kill-a-watt, I can do it at the end of the week when my replacement PSU arrives.

pyronaught · Post by **pyronaught** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 8:39 pm

I want to figure out the true cost per print, and also need to select a UPS. My power tends to flick on and off randomly maybe once or twice a week and I know it's only a matter of time until it happens several hours into a long print.

jsc · Post by **jsc** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:04 pm

This old thread has some information: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/makerge ... vgIQ7LSOgJ
It's so old they're probably on an earlier revision of the hardware. A friend measured it with everything on and got 300W.

pyronaught · Post by **pyronaught** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:42 pm

I guess it is going to vary according to what temp you are running the hbp and extruder. I'll have to just get one of those kill-a-watt meters and measure the worst case scenario for the UPS and then measure each configuration for specific parts, unless the cost is so small on the parts that it is miniscule.

insta · Post by **insta** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 11:28 pm

You should size your UPS based on the worst-case scenario of the printer -- the wattage of the PSU itself.

sthone · Post by **sthone** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 3:01 am

I did some quick test tonight....

Just turning the printer on I was drawing 135 Watts/1.1 Amps

Turning on the Extruder (set to 215 Degrees) it was at about 315 Watts/2.5 Amps as it was coming up to temp.
Once it came up to temp it level out about 290 Watts.

Then turning the Bed on (set to 60 Degrees) it jumped up to around 960 Watts / 7.9 Amps as that was coming up to temp.
Once both the Extruder and bed where at temp it leveled off around the 300 watts mark. (I didn't watch it long though)

Once I hit print it jumped around between 300 and then back and forth to the 980 range. (Its bring the temps back in range I'm guessing)

Once actual printing began it peaks about 1060 Watts and then drops right back down to 350. It keeps this fluctuation up while printing but I'd have to say it runs in the lower 350 range more often.

After the first few layers I turned the bed off and left it printing and it averages out around 380 watts with the bed off.

When it was done printing with just both the fans running it's drawing 140 watts...

That's my results in a nut shell.....

-Steve

jimc · Post by **jimc** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 3:15 am

steve, something about that doesnt seem right. seems way off. the bed heater is aprox 180 watts and the extruder heaters are only 40watts. other than that its just powering the rambo board which draws pretty much nothing and a few steppers which dont draw a ton either. i could be wrong of course but slightly over 1000 watts seems way high. how were you measuring the current draw?

sthone · Post by **sthone** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 3:26 am

: tester-001.jpg (52.22 KiB) Viewed 12049 times

I was using this appliance load tester so who knows. In this picture it's plugged into a led light bulb that is suppose to draw 8-10 watts so as far as I know it works right.

I'd love to see what someone else comes up with though just to be sure...

-Steve

oops - edit for picture size.

jsc · Post by **jsc** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:27 am

I saw a review on Home Depot's web site that complains that it's not a true RMS meter and doesn't work properly with CFLs. I bet it can't handle non-resistive loads properly.

Energy Consumption

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