Fabrication Shop Electric Bill

[Gizmo.Y]

Evening gents, got my first electric bill for the 1/4 and it seems massively expensive...

Just looking to see what you guys are paying if you do not mind giving me some ball park figures.

I do maybe 2-3 hours a day TIG welding. A lot of that time the welder is sat turned on, but idling. Rarely use the lights. Office PC on all day and frequent use of grinders etc.

£350 for the 1/4!

In comparison, my next door neighbor, a busy garage, claims to pay on average £150 per 1/4. He does a lot of MOT Welding repairs.

Input appreciated.

 

[brightspark]

that's easy check what your daily usage is on meter kwh and your bill will tell u what tariff your paying per kw

 

[Gizmo.Y]

Unfortunatly i don't have access to my meter...I have to call the landlord out for him to give me access.

 

[Spark plug]

A quick calculation suggests your paying approx 5.42 per day, i pay about £0.18 per kWh so that would mean your useing about 30 kWh per day.

Is you bill an estermate?

 

[Robotstar5]

Can you clip an energy monitor onto the main cable where it comes into your workshop?

 

[MattH]

Check you tarif, we pay 13p per KWH.

Also check that you are not running all your gear on a single phase (if you are three phase), if you pull it all from one phase you might be paying for 3 x the actual leccy you are using.

 

[Cobbler]

Unfortunatly i don't have access to my meter...I have to call the landlord out for him to give me access.

I bet the meter reader couldn't get access either! As Sparkplug says, probably estimated reading. As a first bill, they have no history to go on, so will over estimate.

 

[Mee]

With landlords you have to be very careful as they do a deal with one supplier for multiple properties and have their own meters installed, they know what they are being charged by their supplier which will be a business rate which is much lower than a domestic rate, often they just double this to you and make a quick and easy 100% profit on energy usage. If they buy their own meters then they can set any tariff they like.

 

[Gizmo.Y]

Our landlord doesnt deal with the electric board, i get billed direct from NPower

 

[WorkshopChris]

I do maybe 2-3 hours a day TIG welding.

Transformer or Inverter? Single or 3 Phase.?
Compressor?

 

[the snooper]

Did you check and note down the Meter reading when you moved in ? You may be paying for someone else's electric if not

 

[mike 109444]

Make sure your busy next door neighbor is not running an extension lead from your supply

 

[Gizmo.Y]

I hope not, he is my uncle aha!

My Tariff is 19p for KWH. Just looking for what similar shops pay. I think its twice as dear as it should be...

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Transformer or Inverter? Single or 3 Phase.?
Compressor?

This could matter...a lot!

 

[WorkshopChris]

This could matter...a lot!

A big transformer tig may pull towards 50a from the mains compared to maybe 30a on a comparable setting.
A compressor banging away keeping up with a die grinder and air tools, can soon start to add to high consumption.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

A big transformer tig may pull towards 50a from the mains compared to maybe 30a on a comparable setting.
A compressor banging away keeping up with a die grinder and air tools, can soon start to add to high consumption.

+, anything with a motor in it will be [relatively] expensive in prolonged use.

 

[Keith 66]

Back in 84 when i got a workshop on a local farm the bill was divvied up on a sort of estimated basis. As more workshops got taken up it got silly until one day there was a power cut. The supply had burnt out & there was no power for 2 months. As i was in the middle of a spray job on a yacht i was not best pleased. It turned out 5 workshops were running of one single phase cooker cable.
New 3 phase supply was put on with seperate check meters at each workshop. My bill fell by 50% as did one other guy. The other lot were using far more than they thought. Didnt stop them squealing though!

 

[Gizmo.Y]

Spoke to a guy local today, has compressors going all day, MIG's plugged in all day (Mostly Idling), mills going all day... Said he hasn't seen a bill above £200 in the last few years. Im comparison to how he put it, im using way less than this guy.

I'm adamant they have mis-read the meter reading, but they are not having any of it! Either that or someone has tapped into our electric somehow....

 

[colnerov]

Or the meter they are reading is not for your unit.

 

[brightspark]

fit your own meter if u have a db in your unit