Electric cost of running an OWB

I just got my first full billing cycle since my OWB install. I have a landlord meter that has the well pump,furnace ,and ultility room light on it only. Nothing else is on that meter. The bill runs around 55 dollars for 2 months usually. Use is around 150-200KW. The bill was 97 and change,I was a bit suprised at how much it was.I thought the 2 circs would add a few dollars,but not that much,my useage was 400KW. I though the furnace blower,and coil not runnign ever would offset some of it,but I guess not. I may try wiring my indoor loop circ differently,so it comes on with the activation of a zone only,not 24/7. Does this seem about right? Its about $25 a month almost a dollar a day for the electric to the OWB.

something is wrong i run my whole house which includes my heatmor i avg 95.00 a month
2 kids that do not like to turn off lights included

was it a actual read or estimated?

versus how much saved in gas or oil or propane?

it might seem a little high but I am not familiar with a land lord meter . I know if it is anything like we have in my area I cannot thing of what they call it but if you opt for this plan the electricity used during the day is more expensive than during the night . I wonder if that is your situation. well look at it this way $25 higher electric bill is better than paying for fuel oil or propane

My bill when up a similar amount, I'm setup somewhat similar...I have two meters, one for house one for shop...OWB went in...house bill went down, shop went up (where owb is wired), about the same amout if not more but I now have the shop furance fans blowing hot air and a motion sensor light out by the OWB...but yeah, it was more than I thought it was going to be.

Mine goes down $50 a month as soon as the boiler is fired in the fall. I'm guessin not running an electric hot water heater is the factor.

With my 5036 I really didn't notice much of a change in the bill. The pump is running constant, but it's not a large draw by any means. My OWB replaced my forced air propane, so in theory my blower rns the same as if burning propane, without actually burning propane.

jeeptj19992001 said:

something is wrong i run my whole house which includes my heatmor i avg 95.00 a month
2 kids that do not like to turn off lights included

was it a actual read or estimated?

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I looked at my bill,its an actual reading. My entire house is on the other meter,i only use 1400KW in 2 months 3 kids,and GF works FT from computer all day.The OWB and well were 403 KW for 2 months.The reading before the OWB was 175-190KW.So its more than doubled. I have the circ that came with the shaver on it,and a 3 speed grunsfor(sp) inside set on medium(67 watts).I was told each circ would cost about $6.00 a mo to operate 24/7. I have 2,so I was planning on a 24.00 or so increase,also thought the oil head would not be running,so the coil,and fan/pump would save me a little of the 25 increase.Its about $50.00 for 2 months,thats more than I thought it would be.I know im saving by burning wood,just didnt think it'd cost me $300.oo a yr in electric to do it.I thought 100-150 tops.

Find all of the loads that are associated with your OWB, your pumps, combustion blower, indoor blower, lights and anything else that keeps it running. Find the wattage of each device, some will say right on them, but motors may only give you amps. Here's where some backyard electrical engineering comes in. Multiply your amps by your line voltage, take a real reading to get exact voltage instead of just using 115 or 120, and then multiply by 0.75 to compensate for a 75% power factor associated with A/C motors.

Add all your watts up and divide by 1000 to get kilowatts, and multiply this by your electric billing rate in $ per kilowatt hour, this will give you the cost of running all of your OWB equipment for exactly one hour. Multiply this by 24 and again by 30 and you will have the maximum amount of money your OWB will cost to run during a 30 day billing cycle.

Now it gets tricky again. Not all of this stuff runs 24/7, some cycles on and off, and you'll need to estimate what percentage of the time it is or isn't on and adjust your previous calculation accordingly.

That sounds about right

I have a CB5036 with a Taco 009 and a Taco 007 on the HX wraparound loop. These 2 pumps are on 24/7. I noticed $20-$25 month for electricity increase. I have also noticed a $6000/year decrease in oil costs.

Scootermsp said:

I have a CB5036 with a Taco 009 and a Taco 007 on the HX wraparound loop. These 2 pumps are on 24/7. I noticed $20-$25 month for electricity increase. I have also noticed a $6000/year decrease in oil costs.

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Thast about the same as mine I guess. Well my oil use was about $2200-2700 a yr,1/2 of which i was paying, tenant paid the other 1/2. Saving 1100 a yr ,but having to spend over 8K,and all the work Im just not feeling all warm and fuzzy over it,LOL.In your case,your saving 5700 a yr,I'd be estatic too,my savings arent even 20% of yours.If oil ever hits 5.00 a gallon again,then ill feel better about it.

volts x amps = watts

A 007 taco uses .71 amps @ 115volts

115 x .71 = 81.65 watts ( this is per hour )

81.65 x 24 (hours) = 1959 watts/24hours

1 killowatt hour (KWH) = 1000 watts

Figure the taco uses 1959 watts or approx 2 KWH

My electric rate is 10 cents / KWH

So a 007 using 2 KWH / day would cost approx 20 cents per day to run constantly.

Think about this...

John D, You are also NOT buying oil from a terrorist/radical islamic state that would just as well see you and your way off life swept off the Earth. If that doesn't make you warm and fuzzy, nothing will. Hang in there....oil will be back to $4-5 Gal at some point and you will be burning your lips (you will kiss the door of your OWB everytime you load it!)

John D, it looks like your figures are based on running the owb for 12 months a year? Are you planning on running it year round?

Tenant

John D said:

Thast about the same as mine I guess. Well my oil use was about $2200-2700 a yr,1/2 of which i was paying, tenant paid the other 1/2. Saving 1100 a yr ,but having to spend over 8K,and all the work Im just not feeling all warm and fuzzy over it,LOL.In your case,your saving 5700 a yr,I'd be estatic too,my savings arent even 20% of yours.If oil ever hits 5.00 a gallon again,then ill feel better about it.

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I would still be charging your tenant for heat, why should you do all that work for his heat? Give the tenant the option to help with the wood production if they are able bodied, otherwise charge them $200/mo during heating season.

reaperman said:

volts x amps = watts

A 007 taco uses .71 amps @ 115volts

115 x .71 = 81.65 watts ( this is per hour )

81.65 x 24 (hours) = 1959 watts/24hours

1 killowatt hour (KWH) = 1000 watts

Figure the taco uses 1959 watts or approx 2 KWH

My electric rate is 10 cents / KWH

So a 007 using 2 KWH / day would cost approx 20 cents per day to run constantly.

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OK,I just looked at the billing details. My cost is .10 a KWH,Im also getting a delivery charge of almost 2 cents a KWH.Basic charges are 20.00 a mo for the meter.After all the taxes,delevery charges, my 2 circs and the blower are costing close to $1.00 a day additional to operate,as the bill has went up approx $40.00-50.00 for 60 days.Useage is up about 200KWH a month from 175 to 403. I do have a 250 watt light on that circuit that use for a few minutes every night when i load the OWB,but its on for 3-5 minutes max a day.It was a bit of a shock,when the bill went up so much,After looking at the bill,all along i was paying almost 47.00 for 2 mo for the service/meter/taxes,and about 5-10.00 for the electric.Now the tax went from 1.00 a mo to 7.00,and the electric went from 10.00-35.00 or so. Then the delivery fee and additional taxes make up the difference.
I think im going to just turn off the LL meter,and save the 47.00 a billing cycle,I never intended to live here as long as I have,but with the economy,I dont think ill be building my dream house anytime soon.Ive been meaning to do it for yrs,just to make the transfer switch easier to hook up alone. I will just run a double pole 30A jumper wire from my meter to the LL meter.Only 4 spaces being used there a double pole 20A for the 3/4hp well,and 2 -15Amp one for the furnace room/OWB.Other has an outlet,and light only in furnace room so bioler man can shut power to furnace,and still see,and have a live outlet.
ON a good note, my house KWH usage has never been lower. I posted a while ago about the EBU unit

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=80490&highlight=EBU+unit

It definitely is working. The christmas billing cycle is always high,this yr i was 300KWH lower than last yr,this cycle i was 100 KWH lower than last yr. My thoughts are once the circs are on the EBU units panel,they too will cost about 10-20% less to operate,and its better for the motors they will last longer.Im saving about $15.00-50.00 every 2 months with it.Problem is our rates went up,so I am not noticing a lower bill,but it inst going up either,while my friends are crying about a higher bill.

$25 a month sounds about right. The 'lectric coop around here sends out a flier every now and then and a while back they said it costs 25 cents a day to leave a 100 watt bulb turned on 24-7 or roughly $100 a year. Soooo, my rough and ready calculating thinks a TACO 007 pulls about an amp or about the same as a 100 watt bulb. I know, lots of just abouts and ifs in my logic but your bill makes sense when you add another pump, the blower and light and a rate increases since I read the article.

Scootermsp said:

John D, You are also NOT buying oil from a terrorist/radical islamic state that would just as well see you and your way off life swept off the Earth. If that doesn't make you warm and fuzzy, nothing will. Hang in there....oil will be back to $4-5 Gal at some point and you will be burning your lips (you will kiss the door of your OWB everytime you load it!)

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This is one of the biggest reasons i went with the OWB,that and the 5.00 a gallon it hit this summer.I knew if iI had to fill at 5.00 a gallon,no way would I give that kind of money (6000) for heat.The yr I built my house (97), I spent $60.00 a month for oil for both sides! I paid .57cents a gallon the first time i filled my tanks,LOL.Last time i filled was 2.39,It cost me $2550 ,that was when i said Im done,then oil went to $5.00! My house is very tight,and well insulated. I love burning wood,now that I am,I thinkId burn it even if oil was .25 cents a gallon,its the principal of not giving them the $$ and using wood thats otherwise left to rot to heat my home.Its a good feeling looking at the wood pile at the end of the day after a days cutting,bucking anbd stacking,thats something no amount of oil can give you,and the weight i lost stacking wood is good too.
As for the tenant,I am "including" heat,so I pay either way,I alwasy set aside $$ for the oil out of the rent,now the $$ goes to repay the OWB.

I know we all complain about our electric bills, I sure do. I'm on the border of 3 different power companies, and of coarse, the one that services my home is the most expensive. This company charges a $20 service charge before I even start using juice, the other companies dont charge this amount, and their cost per KWH is cheaper. I have two meters and I'm wacked with this $20 charge/meter. Must be nice to have a monopoly and name your price for service. But one thing I realize each time the power goes out, is that its sure nice when it comes back on.

I added a side arm HX to my water heater so the boiler heats my water also. This keeps me from using any electric to heat my water. So even with my OWB running my electric bill dropped about $6-10 a month.