price of running an iron?

treeze

I did a class last week in encaustic art which was great fun and something I'd be interested in doing at home. Thing is,there's always a catch. You need to keep a special art flat-iron running on a low heat constantly to melt and spread the wax you use. I use as little electricity as possible being on a low income...they are not available with batteries as I checked and use approx 200-300 volts I think. Can someone explain in real terms what that costs for me? Presumably I'd be doing it for an hour or so at a time. Think another idea probably bites the dust...

Wywth

treeze wrote: »

I did a class last week in encaustic art which was great fun and something I'd be interested in doing at home. Thing is,there's always a catch. You need to keep a special art flat-iron running on a low heat constantly to melt and spread the wax you use. I use as little electricity as possible being on a low income...they are not available with batteries as I checked and use approx 200-300 volts I think. Can someone explain in real terms what that costs for me? Presumably I'd be doing it for an hour or so at a time. Think another idea probably bites the dust...

Whatever it uses, it'll be a lot cheaper than buying batteries

Borrow an energy monitor from a friend, or local library, plug it in and measure what it uses over an hour

ValHaller

Not available with batteries. Well, it would be loads more expensive with batteries. Do you have a link to a suitable iron? Perhaps that would help someone work it out..

I can't imagine the iron would be more than 200W. A 1000W iron running continuously would not cost more than 20p/hour.

treeze

www.encaustic.com/products/iron Hadn't thought about the price of batteries,I hardly ever buy them!:)

Cardew

It is impossible to give a cost of operation.

Irons have a thermostat that is regularly switching the power off and on depending on a number of factors.

Lots here: http://www.encaustic.com/techniq/fineart/fineart_tools/fineart_tools_heated.html


All you can say is no more than a few pennies an hour

ValHaller

treeze wrote: »

www.encaustic.com/products/iron Hadn't thought about the price of batteries,I hardly ever buy them!:)

Actually at http://www.encaustic.com/products/iron/iron.html

Surprisingly, it is rated at 200W. As Cardew correctly says, the thermostat will prevent determining an accurate cost. But quite easy to establish that you can get at least 5 hours use for 1 unit of electricity. So no more than 3 or 4p/hour

treeze

thanks for your help-probably less than I thought then:)

matelodave

If it's got a thermostat in it then you can estimate that it's probably only on for 50-70% of the time so a 200watt iron would equate to approx. 100-150watts an hour which is about 6-10 hours for a kw/h, assuming 14p a kw it should cost you no more that 2p an hour.

[Deleted User]

My iron is rated at 1835-2000 watts , Think I will test it with my smart meter now

matelodave

The iron the OP is talking about looks like a low wattage travel iron, not a full sized domestic steam jobby

treeze

great description:rotfl: