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An easy way for people, who don't own electrical metering devices, is to calculate their machine's Duty Cycle, note the nameplate power consumption figure (or the rated power of the elements connected), then record the duration that the machine is turned 'On' for. It is good enough to use this method for most purposes...
Using Robusto's observations above, the Duty Cycle is calculated by...
Time On x 100 divided by (Time On + Time Off) = 14.19% Duty Cycle.
Average energy consumption in KWH (Units) is then calculated by...
Nameplate rated power (KW) x Time on (say 4 Hrs) x Duty Cycle (14.19%)
Using Robusto's data above again = 1.484 KWH of energy consumed.
Or, roughly 1.5 Units at your particular energy consumption costs, say $0.25/Unit = $0.375 in Total, for four hours use.
Not a lot of money really and probably not worth most people's time to even worry about...
Mal.
P.S.
The above does not take into account the energy used to heat up the boiler contents initially.
Use this simplified formula to calculate the energy required to heat the water within the boiler.
Please not, this calculation does not account for thermal losses or that energy required to heat the boiler itself and any connected thermally conductive pipework, etc...
Input Energy (KWH) = (4.2 x Water Volume x (Desired Water Temperature - Initial Water Temperature)) Divided by 3,600
⸫ KWH = (4.2 x Lt x Td)/3,600
Using Robusto's numbers again... KWH = (4.2 x 8 x (125-21))/3,600
= 0.971 KWH
Add this to the original result above and the total including initial warm-up is 2.455 KWH.
Or, about $0.61 all up. Still could be considered an almost negligible amount.
In the overall scheme of things electricity costs for a coffee machine aren't all that high -- less than the cost of a cafe coffee if I left mine on 24 hours.
In any case, we have solar panels which at 5 KW more than cover the power draw. When the sun shines that is!! (I'll do a separate post on solar).
Incidentally, the machine's rated power is 3200 watts, but I disabled one of the boiler elements so it can run on a 10 amp timer.
Robusto, thanks for posting some real life figures. Funny how we all read figures slightly differently, I had seen some inexpensive two group commercial levers and kept far away due to huge boilers for half a dozen coffees a day, expecting horror running costs. It actually surprised me how reasonable it was to run a two group unit like yours. 50 cents a day for four hours, seems reasonable for the performance you get. Of course for those on solar, just buy another panel when you get your two group!
Not a controlled scientific experiment by any means, but for those completely in the dark about how much electricity is used to leave
a machine on this may shed some light.
The figures are to leave it idling. Actually brewing will alter the figures to take into account the pump etc but given the few coffees brewed daily shouldn't be much higher.
Machine here is a Grimac Eclisse 2 group.
Ambient temperature 18°
Amps: 10.5
Volts 249
Power: 2614 watts
Heating element on: at 0.6 bar
Heating element off: at 0.8+ bar
On time: 22 seconds
off time 2 mins 13 secs
Per minute power: 43.56 watts
Per on cycle watts: 15.97 watts
So every time the element comes on, for 22 seconds, it uses 15.97 watts
In one hour, the machine will have cycled on/off 23.2 times. In 24 hours, 511 times.
In one hour, the heater will be on for 8.5 minutes. In 24 hours, 204 minutes, or 3.4 hours.
the kilowatt/hr price of electricity of course varies according to where you live and from whom you buy it.
I'm allowing 35 cents per kwh.
So, in one hour idling the machine will consume 370 watts. In 24 hours 8887 watts.
Cost of electricity used is 12.95 cents per hour. In 24 hours $3.10.
Power was measured with a digital clamp meter. Voltage is given by my grid solar inverter.
G'day robusto
... and that is exactly why I gave all my commercial espresso machines the bullet. Large boiler machines consume huge amounts of power just heating up the boiler before you can get your first cuppa. Like my 2 group La Pavoni (which I should flog off) - 18 amps @ 240V for 35 minutes warmup, then it also pulls 18A for a minute or two for every shot. Like your machine the La Pav also cycles to keep the whole mass of water up to temp. It also needs a lot of maintenance to avoid the dreaded "boiler fish oil taste".
So when I went to a 6910 (the earlier one) I went to a 90 second warmup at circa 10A (never bothered to measure it as it heats up so fast anyway) and I only heat the water I use plus a little in reserve (about 180ml in all). My "virtual power bills" (I went solar at about the same time) would probably have dropped from $450 down to $400. Even blind taste testing found the 6910 made slightly better coffee than the La Pav (probably because it also has preinfusion, unlike the La Pav). Now I am using a Decent DE1 which also only heats on demand and warms up in 3 to 4 minutes. The coffee flavour also has gone up a few more notches.
Even when I was learning to make coffee in the '70's I realised the boilers were a poor way of making a cuppa - the small boilers are temperature unstable, whilst the bigger boilers are incredibly inefficient. Heating elements and (DE1) mixing valves are a much better solution.
Needless to say, this CS'r is not going back to boilers anytime soon.
Not a controlled scientific experiment by any means, but for those completely in the dark about how much electricity is used to leave
a machine on this may shed some light.
The figures are to leave it idling. Actually brewing will alter the figures to take into account the pump etc but given the few coffees brewed daily shouldn't be much higher.
Machine here is a Grimac Eclisse 2 group.
Ambient temperature 18°
Amps: 10.5
Volts 249
Power: 2614 watts
Heating element on: at 0.6 bar
Heating element off: at 0.8+ bar
On time: 22 seconds
off time 2 mins 13 secs
Per minute power: 43.56 watts
Per on cycle watts: 15.97 watts
So every time the element comes on, for 22 seconds, it uses 15.97 watts
In one hour, the machine will have cycled on/off 23.2 times. In 24 hours, 511 times.
In one hour, the heater will be on for 8.5 minutes. In 24 hours, 204 minutes, or 3.4 hours.
the kilowatt/hr price of electricity of course varies according to where you live and from whom you buy it.
I'm allowing 35 cents per kwh.
So, in one hour idling the machine will consume 370 watts. In 24 hours 8887 watts.
Cost of electricity used is 12.95 cents per hour. In 24 hours $3.10.
Power was measured with a digital clamp meter. Voltage is given by my grid solar inverter.
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