EcoRenovator  

Go Back   EcoRenovator > Improvements > Conservation
Advanced Search
 


Blog 60+ Home Energy Saving Tips Recent Posts Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read


 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 04-06-11, 03:50 PM   #1
MN Renovator
Less usage=Cheaper bills
 
MN Renovator's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 939
Thanks: 41
Thanked 116 Times in 90 Posts
Default 800CFM of air, how much power?

I was always curious why my electric bill in December and January was so much higher than my other months. I don't use much energy, mostly the refrigerator, electric clothes dryer, laptop, and climate control.

The refrigerator wasn't running more in a colder house, my electric clothes dryer is used about the same as any other month because I wash everything about the same rate and the number of loads per month are about the same. Laptop is never off because it doesn't use much power running and I'm almost always on it when I'm at home and its usually doing something for me anyway such as file serving or something else. ...but I'll get the point.

My extra power usage, which I always thought was from the furnace, really is using a heavy amount of power. Today I was curious about how much a blower uses on a furnace so I pulled out my clamp meter pulled the cover over the blower and did a little test.

I attached the picture of the ammeter. 6.26 amps after its been running for two minutes. The updates about twice a second, its initial startup draw that the meter read was 9.48 but since it doesn't update often enough I know that it was only within about the first second but have no real knowledge of the real peak. Usually motors have a peak draw of 3x what they run at. 3 seconds after its running its at a little above 6 amps and then goes up to 6.26 after about 15 seconds, what I assume is some pressure building in the ductwork.

Either way, I don't really get it because this motor is a 1/6 horsepower shaded pole motor, so for it to consume 1/6 horsepower electrically it should be 125 watts or so, add a little bit more for inefficiency and then we call it a day. ...or so I thought.

Turns out it is using a full horsepower. I'm pretty confident this is the source of my high electric bill in the winter but I didn't think its use was that much. The motor is lubricated and it takes a good deal of time to spin down when its shut off.

What do you guys think, is it expected for a furnace blower to use this much electricity? Not quite $10 on the bill but this thing runs much longer hours when its pushing air when cooling the house with the air conditioner. I'll be clamping my meter on the outdoor condenser too when summer comes around.

Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	FurnacePower.JPG
Views:	651
Size:	28.4 KB
ID:	1410  
MN Renovator is offline   Reply With Quote
 


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:44 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Ad Management by RedTyger
Inactive Reminders By Icora Web Design