Electric Garage doors- do they use a lot of electricity?

Steveotwo

Kiran said:

I'm pretty sure mine is similar power usage. It's money well spent in my opinion anyway as the kids can open the garage door using Alexa and there's no danger of them dropping an up and over on their heads or something

Not sure mine is that posh

victor2

If you really want to know, put the ever popular Tapo P110 monitor (other brands are available!) in the standard socket it is probably powered through. Then you can see what it uses over something like a typical week. You could even use the same to control when it is powered if you really wanted to.

victor2

casper_gutman said:

There's a blog post regarding the running costs of electric garage doors here: How much does an electric garage door cost to run? | Garolla Garage Doors

It's written by someone whose job is selling garage doors, so there's a bit of a caveat there I suppose, but it looks believable to me. If anything, it looks as if their estimate will be on the conservative side: they've assumed the door takes one minute to open and close, four times a day, and I think most people would start to feel pretty impatient if they were waiting a full minute for a door to open/close!

The roller type doors do seem to take longer to operate than an up-and-over door, so maybe they are saying 1 minute for both the open and close cycle. My up-and-over takes about 17 seconds for each action, so 34 seconds for a complete cycle. The only thing to watch with an up-and-over is someone parking on your drive a little too close to it. At least mine, and I assume most, stops if it senses too much resistance then reverses a little!

I'm sure modern ones use a lot less electricity in standby than mine does.

Risteard

ThisIsWeird said:

You won't notice it on your monthly bills - ever.

They run for around 10 seconds each time, and probably draw a couple of hundred watts for that duration?

On standby, it'll be well under one watt - which troubles some folk, but not most, 'cos - again - they'll never actually notice the difference in their bills.

You could unplug every 'standby' device in your home, and I'd be utterly gobsmacked if you could detect even a fractional difference in your bills. And, if you could, it would be pennies.

Not a lot to pay for a hell of a lot of convenience - I don't just mean the garage door, but everything else that's on standby.

Mine uses around 300W. The guess of around 10 seconds to open or close seems fairly reasonable, although I've never actually bothered timing it. As stated, it is a complete and utter irrelevance in terms of electricity bills.

Chloe_G

The issue with mine is that it works with a key fob and no-one seemed to be able to reprogram it when the battery ran out.  The installer came back and ended up changing the whole unit and giving me a different fob. 

victor2

Chloe_G said:

The issue with mine is that it works with a key fob and no-one seemed to be able to reprogram it when the battery ran out.  The installer came back and ended up changing the whole unit and giving me a different fob. 

Maybe you had a defective unit. I've replaced batteries and bought replacement key fobs for mine (from a "well known auction site") and linked them to the door unit, which involves pressing a little button in the unit itself followed by the remote button. 

Flugelhorn

victor2 said:

I've had an electric garage door for around 25 years. It uses 8W on standby and 100W when operating, then a 40W bulb which stays on for 3 minutes after it has operated. On current rates it's costing me about 4p a day with my use of about twice a day.
I love it, and still get a kick out of opening it as I approach the drive in my car. I am one of a seemingly less common breed today that actually keeps the car in the garage though!

totally agree - absolutely loved mine at our old house - garage was straight on to the road so very inconvenient to stop  in the road to get out and open it - magic door made all the difference

ThisIsWeird

victor2 said:

If you really want to know, put the ever popular Tapo P110 monitor (other brands are available!) in the standard socket it is probably powered through. Then you can see what it uses over something like a typical week. You could even use the same to control when it is powered if you really wanted to.

It would be sort of 'interesting' to know just how much these sorts of appliances do use - I'd forgotten about the interior light that comes on each time, for example.

But, to buy that monitor is, what, £12? That will be at least three years' worth of normal leccy garage door use

The more I use my leccy garage door, the more I would never get rid. If I was told it cost me £50 pa in 'tricity, I'd consider it completely worth it. I don't keep our daily car in there, but do pretty much everything else, so it's in constant use; open house door, pishing down, press butt, sprint, and duck under the still-opening door. Fab.

Working in t'garage during a downpour but still want the door open for ventilation? Press butt - whirrrr - press butt - stop; the door is held a third-closed acting as a rain canopy.

The cheapest Liftmaster unit (LM60?) fitted 20 years ago, and the only thing that failed is the bulb - recently replaced by a nasty led strip taken from a damaged outdoor light; I hadn't realised the bulb's output was AC (24V), and the flicker is hellish :-(. I chucked a large electro cap across it as a smoothing experiment - BANG! So, disco-flicker it is until I find a cheap solution...

Also fitted Liftmaster gate rams, and all operated from the same three-button fob; large central for garage, LH wee for double gates, RH wee for single pedestrian. Priceless in enjoyment and convenience :-)

victor2

Those switches/monitors have other uses after you've used it on your garage door. Mine is currently on my PC to give me an idea of long term running costs. Come Christmas it will be used as a timed switch for the tree lights! 🙂

My bulb is an odd voltage too, which is why I haven't replaced it with an LED bulb.

Steveotwo

victor2 said:

casper_gutman said:

There's a blog post regarding the running costs of electric garage doors here: How much does an electric garage door cost to run? | Garolla Garage Doors

It's written by someone whose job is selling garage doors, so there's a bit of a caveat there I suppose, but it looks believable to me. If anything, it looks as if their estimate will be on the conservative side: they've assumed the door takes one minute to open and close, four times a day, and I think most people would start to feel pretty impatient if they were waiting a full minute for a door to open/close!

The roller type doors do seem to take longer to operate than an up-and-over door, so maybe they are saying 1 minute for both the open and close cycle. My up-and-over takes about 17 seconds for each action, so 34 seconds for a complete cycle. The only thing to watch with an up-and-over is someone parking on your drive a little too close to it. At least mine, and I assume most, stops if it senses too much resistance then reverses a little!

I'm sure modern ones use a lot less electricity in standby than mine does.

I think the previous owner may have installed it in around 2012 so maybe not so modern, its an up and over door to luckily stops when it senses pressure