Casting Electrical Usage

[fredj338]

Anything that heats draws a lot of elec, but that is still the cheapest part of casting. If you are paying for alloy instead of scrounging, that is where to look to cut cost. A hair dryer is probably comparable in elec use.
https://energyusecalculator.com/elec..._hairdryer.htm

[MUSTANG]

What does it cost: Depends on our electric provider. In Flathead County area of NW Montana there are two rates; dependent on time of day. If one runs the pot from 0001 to 0700, 1000 to 1700, and 2000 to 2400 the rate is the standard rate. Now; if one smells or casts during the 7AM to 10Am or 5PM to 8PM periods, then the "Residential Demand Charge Rate kicks in and it costs much more for these "Premium Hours".

Being retired, we tend to do all our Laundry, dishes, electric tool usage, house warm up heating from night time cool setting, and...... (Including smelting & casting) outside of the "PREMIUM ELECTRICITY PERIOD's". Feel sorry for those with kids and jobs that push them to heavy usage during "Premium" hours.

[megasupermagnum]

I can only speak for my own, as I run Lee 4-20 pots. They draw 700 Watts or 5.8 amps at 120 volts when the elements are heating. When you first plug it in, they run continuously for I'd guess about 20 minutes. Once up to temp, very little. My PID continuously turns them on and off to control temperature. Realistically, they are probably on less than 25% of the time per minute.

According to google, the average cost of electricity in the USA is 13.9 cents per kWh. If we assume 20 minutes of continuous use, then 2 hours of running 25% of the time as an average casting session, that comes out to 8.1 cents each time you cast bullets for a 2 hour session.

By comparison, if you have an electric oven, they appear to draw around 3000 watts. If you use your oven for 1/2 hour, you have just cost 21 cents. I'm guessing it depends on what temp you run it at too. Old electric ovens can be twice that.

[Buckshot]

..............An interesting topic I never considered Not saying it isn't worthy of thought however and not attempting to make light of Southerprides' original question. I pay the bills, and have for the almost 50 years the wife and I have been married, with and without kids at home. I've been on several "MEGA casting marathons". Never noticed any big difference in our electricity bill.

I'd think (although I never bothered to hash it out) that a mega rendering spree would be more of an issue as this generally uses either propane or natural gas. My neighbor was in construction and one job entailed the erection of a radiation proof room in a hospital. A subcontractor out of Texas was handling the lead lining of this facility. He was gifted all the unused 32 LB lead blocks he could haul before the recycler (whom the contractors had called) arrived to pick up the leftovers.

Bless his heart as he hand loaded 2800+ lbs into the bed of his Ford Ranger pickup and hauled it home. And then stacked it to one side of my garage. He said it (his pickup) was "Squatted" down pretty well! In any event, I rendered it all down into a darn big pile of 3 sizes of ingots, using a Propane turkey roaster and a cast iron kettle. I used about 8 gallons of propane and at that time it was about $1.50 a gallon or some such.

At that time scrap lead was going for about $.50/lb so I figured I made out like a bandit.

...............Buckshot

[Burnt Fingers]

If the cost of running an electric melting pot for casting is so great that it deserves concern, there's prolly a lot more to be concerned about than the cost of a two or three hour run making boolits every two or three weeks.

This right here.

If you Hi-Tek or PC the cost to run the oven far outweighs the cost of melting the lead.