Fester saves money on electricity

[Fester]

Save money on electricity.

Your Fester would love to save you money on everything, especially sugar, but some things are not yet possible. However, when it comes to saving money on electricity, here are a few tips to keep the cash in your pocket and not in your utility provider’s greedy fingers…

1. Balance the load. This is THE most important tip. Few people realize that there are two “legs” on a typical home electrical service and that the meter records the highest leg. You pay what the meter records but most electrical meters can only record one leg. So it records the leg that is drawing the most power. If all or most of your draw if from one leg then you are not balanced and you are paying too much (up to twice as much!). Try to get your head around this. It can save you a ton of money. This may not be the case for everyone but it is true for me and my local (SW USA) electric provider.
2. 220-240 volt is automatically balanced because it draws equally from both legs of the typical electrical service (so half is not charged to your electric bill). Whenever possible use a 240 volt element in your electric still and regulate it with a controller. It simply works great and gives precision control. I enclosed my controller in an old ATX computer power supply case and used the existing 12 volt fan to help cool it. I made the switch from propane to electricity and wish only one thing… wish I had done it sooner.
3. If a light bulb burns out then consider replacing the bulb or the entire fixture with a high efficiency bulb/fixture. They last much longer and save you some money each month. This tip has little to do with distilling but it aimed at saving you some money in the long run.

I’m not advocating that you “do without” or sacrifice your standard of living in any way. But if you are buying propane for $20 a cylinder (20 pound cylinder actually holds 15 pounds, go ahead and weigh it full and empty) then you are paying over $6 a gallon. It looks like a 5-gallon cylinder but it is really only 3.5 gallons. If you get half of that heat to the inside of the boiler then you are doing better than me. I think most of the fuel is heating my garage in the summertime and I must vent out all that excess heat or cool my work area somehow and that involves even more costs. You don’t want to insulate your propane-fired boiler? I don’t blame you. But it is just too easy to insulate an electric boiler. And that raises the efficiency even more.

If you are using propane for your still then with a very few dollars you can upgrade to electricity and be saving money and enjoy a faster boil up while saving a few bucks every time you use your still AND enjoy a cooler/quieter working environment.

Fester

(Please note that Fester is not an electrician or an electrical engineer but is a keen observer in the “ways of the tight ass”.)

[blind drunk]

Hey Fester, thanks for the leg up .

[airhill]

And I always thought Fester did it without connections; what a let down

If someone can do the same info in Fourecks that would be great, we are about to get a BIG increase in power costs.

[N0N4M3]

3. If a light bulb burns out then consider replacing the bulb or the entire fixture with a high efficiency bulb/fixture. They last much longer and save you some money each month. This tip has little to do with distilling but it aimed at saving you some money in the long run.

Consider dimming your lights by 5-10%, that way they last much longer and don't loose a lot of light. I'm a electrician and I have tried this and they live up to twice as longer.

[HookLine]

I'm a electrician

If you are in the USA, can you check if the info in this post is okay?

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 4#p6796624

Thanks
Hook

[absinthe]

or convert to natural gas and save even more

[plonker]

or convert to natural gas and save even more

I like this, and it has me thinking... I was in bunnings earlier today (Hardware chain in Oz) saw converter kits to convert lpg barbeques to natural gas.. Expensive but there you go.

SO I went there to buy a new lpg double burner.. 2 x 8000 btu.. two to get up to temp and then one for the run.... Then you look at $35 AU for 9 kg of lpg....

Hmmmm.. lpg vs natural gas......

[squidd]

If you are in the USA, can you check if the info in this post is okay?

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 4#p6796624

Thanks
Hook

Hello Hook,

You did'nt get an answer to your Q, so I'll jump in.

There should'nt be a (-) sign in front of one of the 115 volt legs, since we are dealing with AC.
Just nit-picking, I know.

The switching arrangement will work fine, although personally I would use a DPDT (center OFF) switch to interrupt both sides of the load.

Otherwise the load is still live even though the SPDT switch is in the OFF position, and that would be a safety concern in my opinion.

HTH,
squidd

[HookLine]

There should'nt be a (-) sign in front of one of the 115 volt legs, since we are dealing with AC.
Just nit-picking, I know.

Yeah, I know, that is why it is in brackets. It is sometimes kinda hard to explain to non electrical people the whole cyclical voltage wave and changing polarity thing.

The switching arrangement will work fine, although personally I would use a DPDT (center OFF) switch to interrupt both sides of the load.

Otherwise the load is still live even though the SPDT switch is in the OFF position, and that would be a safety concern in my opinion.

That is true. I will redo the drawing.

Thanks

[N0N4M3]

I'm Icelandic and not in the US but know how things work there
Sorry about not answering, just looked back into this post after changing my user settings showing me topics that I have posted on that have replies in them.
But yeah the dpdt switch with on-off-on is exactly what I would have reccomended, just be sure if one is gonna do this by himself is to get a switch with contacts that can withstand the current if you have a large element hooked up to it