estimating dryer operating costs.

[seme]

I am looking at a new dryer and wondering how i can calculate the operating
costs of a dryer?  I live in Europe and electricity is expensive here.  Does anyone
have a formula for this? or does anyone know this answer?
Thanks for your time..
sean   

[tpitman]

As an example, my flash dryer pulls 16 amps at 240 volts. The wattage then is 3840 watts (amps X volts), or 3.84 kilowatts. My power company charges me $.11736 per kilowatt-hour, so it costs me just over $.45 an hour to run my flash dryer. This presumes that I'm actually getting 240 volts at the plug, and that I've got the dryer on full blast. My flash dryer has a "temperature" control that cycles the panel on and off to modify the heat output, so in fact I should be paying less.
Find out the voltage and amp pull of the dryer you are considering, and check the invoice from your power company to find out how much they are soaking you per kilowatt-hour.

[Frog]

Are you limited to electric? Could you consider gas?
Especially when production increases, gas is the way to go here in the states. It may well be the same in Spain.

[seme]

TPitman.. Thanks.. that is exactly what i needed..
Andy!.. long time buddy.. where you been hiding?
Gas is super expensive here. I would need to buy
a tank and get it filled.. there are no mainlines here yet.

Natural resources in general are more expensive here.
 At it?s peak i was paying 7.50usd for a gallon
of gasoline..

[Duke of York]

The cost to run a conveyor dryer will vary depending on how much air is exhausted by the dryer. The conveyor is an oven. The more hot air pumped out, the more hot air which needs to be replaced. Keep the dryer opening small.

[bimmridder]

I'd suggest contacting an M&R rep close to you. They seem to ahve a pretty good idea of costs of gas vs electric, so perhaps they could give you an idea on THEIR equipment

[mk162]

In Europe, check out the Adelco(?) gas dryer.  It's modular, efficient and made in England with better support than stateside.

We bought an Interchange MD-8, it's easier to work on than the Sprint HO from M&R.  Our tech also said it has less problems as well.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.

The best part is, everything inside the panel is available from virtually any supply house for gas appliances.  I don't have to wait on standard parts if I have a problem.

[stitch101]

Brad that's all good but Sean said he doesn't have natural gas where he is and it was more expensive than electricity. Glad to here you love your dryer. Give me an other option to look at when I need to replace mine.

[mk162]

Yes, but even though natural gas is higher, a tank of it is cheaper than electricity, trust me.  This oven is half the cost of the electric one we used before.  It runs at about $.80-$.90 per hour.

It's worth a look rather than saying, oh, I'd need a tank and gas costs too much.  It's more efficient to heat with gas no matter what you are heating, ask any appliance person.

Once you figure out the cost of electric, look at the price per therm and the BTU of a gas oven, you'll find they are quite cheap to operate.

[DaveZ]

Yes, but even though natural gas is higher, a tank of it is cheaper than electricity, trust me. 

Not necessarily true - depends on location, plus lots of other factors.  Just sayin'...

What IS true is that it's worth investigating the cost of operation of any dryer, using real energy costs from actual suppliers.

[mk162]

We almost put in a tank since we weren't sure we had enough water column.  Luckily we had a lot more than I thought.

Check the usage, my dad's house runs electric heat, his electric bill is higher on his 8 year old house built to new code than mine that is 30 years old with poorly taped ducts.

Our last oven cost over $8 an hour to operate

[sportsshoppe]

I have an old Phoenix electric dryer. With that said I have 3 phase power runt to my business and just added another 200 amp box and increase service to 440 v.  My AC went out with a weather problem so I replaced it with a 3 phase unit. I have a 2800 sq ft store ( uniforms, shirts, sporting equip. ) and then my printing in the back ( 1900 sq ft ) before I got the 3 phase AC unit my bill run $700 - $800 a month in summer. Now last summer the highest bill was $560 and that is with 100 degree plus heat index outside. I usually run dryer, ( flash 110v  when on manual ) and then flashback (220 v ) when working on auto. This bill includes water and garbage and we go through a Co-op which is higher than going straight through a electric company. I do have gas heat in the store so I do not have to run heat strips in the SHORT winter. It all depends on where your at in order to decide which to go with. For me in the south US its electric. Good Luck I am sure you will get plenty of advice.