Is your utility company Pacific Greed and Extortion?
Ill have to check the current bill and see how many kwH Im using. When Im gone during the week, there is only one computer running 24/7 and all the light bulbs in the house have been replaced with those florescent replacements. The gas heater hasnt been run in a month, nor has the swamp cooler in 6 months, and all the appliences, including the dryer are gas.
Ill check into that gizmo.
Gunner
Lathe Dementia. Recognized as one of the major sub-strains of the all-consuming virus, Packratitis. Usual symptoms easily recognized and normally is contracted for life. Can be very contagious. michael
My welders run at most, perhaps 6 hours a month actual ON time, less for welding time.
I cant afford to buy an inverter based machine. That takes cash. Hard money. Aint got any of that. I was able to swap/trade for the machines I do have. If I wasnt able to..there would be no machines.
formatting link
how do I find out what a :baseline rate is..the tarrif listing above is greek to me.
Kern County, residential. 1.5 residents (Im only home on weekends), see other post about gas appliences, florescent bulbs..
I asked the guy down at the PG^E payment office about running a welder, and he flat told me even a buzzbox on weekends would tend to double my rates. My bills appear to reflect that.
Now I turn on a welder, run the shortest bead I can get away with, then turn it right back off. I dont have any Power Factor caps in the welders that I know of.
Gunner
Lathe Dementia. Recognized as one of the major sub-strains of the all-consuming virus, Packratitis. Usual symptoms easily recognized and normally is contracted for life. Can be very contagious. michael
Total Energy Rates ($ per kWh) Baseline Usage $0.11430
101% - 130% of Baseline $0.12989
131% - 200% of Baseline $0.17557 (R)
201% - 300% of Baseline $0.21474 | Over 300% of Baseline $0.21474 (R)
Total Minimum Charge Rate ($ per meter per day) $0.14784
Looking at the way they calculate KWhrs YOU ARE GETTING SCREWED.
Code B - Basic Quantities Baseline Summer Winter Territory* Tier I Tier I P 15.8 12.9 Q 8.5 13.0 R 17.5 12.7 S 15.8 12.8 T 8.5 10.2 V 8.7 10.4 W 18.7 11.9 X 12.2 13.0 Y 11.3 (I) 12.9 Z 7.3 11.2
If it was me I'd find a gas or diesel powered welder and use it. Don't bother with a generator since most engine welders include one anyway.
The reason for this is obvious - your overall electric consumption is pretty minimal otherwise. The compact fluorescent lamps, the gas fired appliances, etc.
Computers don't really burn that much power. I bet the biggest power-hog in your domicile is the refrigerator. In some sense, the fact that the welder makes such a big impact in your bill is a badge of success. It means that most times your meter just barely ticks over.
Compare that to me, with an electric dryer, and a full time dehumidifier in the shop. Granted the first hardly gets used in the summertime, and the second cannot (and need not) be used in the winter. House ACs are small and only do two rooms, but in the NY summer they can be on for a couple of months, steady.
Power factor capacitors won't improve your rate of meter spin. The meter *only* looks at real power, not reactive power - and power factor correction capacitors reduce only reactive, or out-of-phase, current.
Something tells me that the reason you're having trouble reducing your power bill is, you've already done a 90 percent job of doing so. The last ten percent is the toughest.
What did you finally do with your dry well, did you go the sulfuric route?
Lathe Dementia. Recognized as one of the major sub-strains of the all-consuming virus, Packratitis. Usual symptoms easily recognized and normally is contracted for life. Can be very contagious. michael
You may well get hooked on buying military surplus stuff and making money on fixing it up slightly and reselling it. You never know if it is really going to be once.
If you can make a legal bumper based receiver for lunette hitches, you can buy a military M105A2 trailer for like $200, and you would have a great trailer (sans the 24 lights and air brakes issues).
They're few and far between, as my Corvair and Signal Corps PE-95-G can attest.
Well then, it's simple enough to get a receiver tube kit
formatting link
zap it onto the bottom of the step plate, along with a couple of diagonal braces to the frame rails - I think you can find a welder or three around there (of each type) that works...
Then you get a hunk of 2" square bar or heavy square tube for the receiver, a hunk of 1/2" plate for the pintle mount, and use an ironworker to punch holes for bolting the pintle hook down. A gusset on the back, some Grade 8 bolts and nuts, and you have copied...
formatting link
My "new" 1-ton truck only has a bumper hitch, but the first towing job that comes up and Eckhart's will be putting a full-on Class III/IV receiver under there.
Bumpers are put on cars primarily for looks, not for pulling trailers - I've seen several that folded like a cardboard box when stressed. If the makers built their hitch bumpers heavy enough to actually tow a fully loaded trailer, they'd never sell because the bumpers would cost too much. Price Competition, a race to the bottom.
Lathe Dementia. Recognized as one of the major sub-strains of the all-consuming virus, Packratitis. Usual symptoms easily recognized and normally is contracted for life. Can be very contagious. michael
A friend is trying to sell me a WW2 vintage Hobart gas welder. Its supposed to run. DC only of course, so that screws up the MIG and tig welding
Gunner
Lathe Dementia. Recognized as one of the major sub-strains of the all-consuming virus, Packratitis. Usual symptoms easily recognized and normally is contracted for life. Can be very contagious. michael
So why is my bill $150 normal, going to $300 when I turn on a welder?
Still not done anything yet. Ive been sick, broke and swamped with other stuff. Its something I need to adress ASAP though.
Gunner
Lathe Dementia. Recognized as one of the major sub-strains of the all-consuming virus, Packratitis. Usual symptoms easily recognized and normally is contracted for life. Can be very contagious. michael
Quite true. Ill have to see. My buddy is willing to pay about $200 max. If they go over that...back to the drawing board.
I looked over the bumper,. and it would be simple make up a base to mount a pintle hitch on.
Gunner
Lathe Dementia. Recognized as one of the major sub-strains of the all-consuming virus, Packratitis. Usual symptoms easily recognized and normally is contracted for life. Can be very contagious. michael
2,000 watts for one hour = 2 KWHrs. Look at your power bill for the going rate, at the moment L.A. DWP is charging (figuring it out because they don't just print the rate on the bill...) 10.2c per KWHr for residential.
Let me think about that one for a few seconds - Buy the electricity for 20.2 cents, or pay $2.00 plus for a gallon of diesel fuel or gasoline, and then add in the capital costs of the generator, and the maintenance, and the eventual engine rebuild... Nope, you're still better off buying your electricity from the local power utility under normal circumstances.
Diesel doesn't go BOOM! nearly as easily as gasoline. But diesel fuel does have algae and bio-growth problems to be considered when it's stored for long periods.
Natural gas has got to be a whole lot cheaper than oil, though I have no idea how the numbers work - you can't just go with SCFH because the BTU content varies from different sources, you have to get into the 'voodoo math' of Therms.
And most of the mid-size power plants and gas-turbine 'peaking' plants are running on natural gas instead of oil... But hydroelectric power is free of fuel costs, though you have to allow for the capital and maintenance costs of the dam and powerhouse.
Even after you add in the utility transport costs, you simply can't buy fossil fuels yourself cheaper than they can collect rain water at a high elevation and capture the energy of it descending...
If you want reliable backup power from a gaseous fuel, you want Propane or Propane/Natural dual-fuel, and not Natural Gas alone - after an earthquake your natural gas supply might be interrupted if the line breaks anywhere in the system. But that 100-gallon Propane tank out back is still going to be available, and it doesn't go bad.
Stormin has it right on this one-- if the utility could power ya up cheaper with diesel or gas out by the pole youda thunk theyda thunk of it beforehand, no ???
It'll cost ya close to 3 times that in diesel or gas, by my estimate........
Too expensive ???
Then go find some shop to do your welding for you !!!
It sounds to me like your billing is based on peak demand just like mine is here in oHIo. The higher my peak demand is, the more I pay per KWH. My peak demand is the highest peak energy used over a 30 minute sliding window. All I have to do is push that number up high ONE TIME in a billing period and my rate goes way up.
Is there any mention on your utility bill of peak demand?
For comparison's sake, the latest Honda generators in the 5 kW class burn
0.80 gal. of gasoline/hr., roughly, when putting out their rated capacity of
5 kW. That's $1.60/hr., at $2.00 gal, or 32 cents/kW-hr.
Their similar propane-fueled generator has a continuous rating of 6 kW, at 5 lb propane/hr. At 4.25 pounds/gal, that's 1.18 gal/hr. Propane sold to residences is price-volatile, running between $1.60 and $2.00/gal right now, according to association reports. Taking the average, that means a per-kW-hr prices of around 35 cents. Natural gas typically runs 12 - 15% cheaper than propane per btu, but I don't know if the Hondas will run on it.
Most engines require a lot less maintenance running on propane or natural gas than they do when running on liquid fuel. Still, it doesn't look like any kind of a deal either way.
The bumper on my 94 Mazda B3000 is rated at 5000 tow weight. Its not cosmetic..as 7 yrs of towing machine tools has born out. Its part of the towing package.
But making a pintle hitch mount should be quite duable
Gunner
Lathe Dementia. Recognized as one of the major sub-strains of the all-consuming virus, Packratitis. Usual symptoms easily recognized and normally is contracted for life. Can be very contagious. michael
???? Are you saying the very old cars are not common here in California? Been to the central valley recently?
Having grown up in Iron Worm country...its fascinating the number of
30s, 40s, and 50s cars that are being driven every day, many of them not even restored past engine work.
A friend of mine just got aBuick Roadmaster. It was found out on a very old oil lease in a blind canyon. The only surface rust on it appears to be as a result of exposure to hydrogen sulfide.
Some bullet holes though. But he claims it will restore as easily as his Hudson Hornet. Found up in Coalinga on a ranch.
Shrug...
Gunner
Lathe Dementia. Recognized as one of the major sub-strains of the all-consuming virus, Packratitis. Usual symptoms easily recognized and normally is contracted for life. Can be very contagious. michael
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.