Cost of running an electric melting pot for lead???

Maximumbob54

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I'm curious if anyone has ever plugged in a watt meter device in to test the cost of using an electric melting pot. I'm sure it isn't that bad but I can cast bullets for a few hours when I hit a good enough rhythm. Add that up with casting every other weekend a month and I'm curious what that would add out at. Are we ignoring a hidden cost in casting? I have a watt meter coming in the mail, so if no one else knows I will end up posting it eventually.
 
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You don't even need a wattage meter for this.

Just look at the power usage label on the melter, and multiply by the hours used. Example: melter rated at 800 watts x 4 hrs x electrical rate = about $3.60 for each 4 hr casting session.
 
At $.15 per KWh, a 700 watt pot, will cost about $.105 (ten and a half cents) an hour to run, assuming the heater element is running full blast all the time.

Once up to temprature, the heater is probably on about 20% of the time, so that would be $.02 - .03 an hour for the electricity.
 
My small Lee bottom pour pot is 500 watt.
So it uses 1/2 kilowatt hour of electricity for each hour used.
My electric rate is about 12 cents per kilowatt hour, so it only costs me 6 cents an hour to run it.

John's example above comes out to $1.12 per kilowatt hour, which seems too high, even for the west coast. My guess is it needed to be converted to kilowatts (1000 watts per kilowatt) before multiplying by the electric rate. If you do that, it's about the same electric rate as mine.
 
So what I'm getting here is that this is nearly a non-issue. Unless I start trying to cast for days on end, I'm damaging the electric bill about as much as she is with her blow dryer and curling iron...

Good to know. I really just wanted to idiot check myself. Sometimes the obvious stuff is the hardest and seems too simple.
 
Watts = Amps * Volts (in the event amps are all thats listed)
for example ...
6A * 115V = 690W
watts / 1000 = kW
690 / 1000 = .69
kW * time * rate = cost
.69kW*4H*$.15= $0.414
 
Take down your dang Christmas lights already, and ya won't have to worry about it.

Those are just wasted electrons that could be helping me make cast bullets... ;)

Don't forget to calculated the cost of you overhead light bulb dangling by a frayed cord.:D

You aren't painting a very good picture of my cheap behind there... :(


But I guess I opened myself up for that by not ingesting enough caffeine this morning. I really couldn't see the forest for the trees on this one...
 
Turkey fryer, get a big heavy pot and have someone put a spigot in it.?? I don't know, but it sounds possible.

I use a one burner propane stove hooked to a 20 lb. bottle with a 15 lb. capacity iron pot on top. I dip and pour with a RCBS ladle with a pour hole. I cast with 4 molds in rotation and drop into a 4 slot divided box. Very fast and more effiecient that an electric pot. Electric pots are too slow to melt and recover on the second filling. Propane for me only!
 
I'm not sure propane would be cheaper.

I'm sure it can be approximated, but I don't feel up to it at the moment. Watts to Btu's to gallons of propane/hr x cost per gallon.
 
With the cost of propane only going up each time I see it listed, I wouldn't think that would be such a good idea. I could be wrong yet again though.
 
You spend more on electric on the damn computer than over your caldron of lead. ;):D

[SIZE=+1]William Shakespeare (1564-1616)[/SIZE] from Macbeth
A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron boiling. Thunder.
Enter the three Witches.
1 W[SIZE=-2]ITCH. [/SIZE] Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
2 W[SIZE=-2]ITCH. [/SIZE] Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.
3 W[SIZE=-2]ITCH. [/SIZE] Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!
1 W[SIZE=-2]ITCH. [/SIZE] Round about the caldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.—
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!
A[SIZE=-2]LL. [/SIZE] Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 W[SIZE=-2]ITCH. [/SIZE] Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
A[SIZE=-2]LL. [/SIZE] Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
3 W[SIZE=-2]ITCH. [/SIZE] Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches' mummy; maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;
Root of hemlock digg'd i the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,—
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingrediants of our caldron.
A[SIZE=-2]LL. [/SIZE] Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 W[SIZE=-2]ITCH. [/SIZE] Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
 
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