Follow up on Ice Storm Gen Thread - How much power does a house take

[buickanddeere]

I have mentioned this before. I rewired my water heater for 110. Half the wattage, much less possibility of deposits forming on your elements. A friend told me this trick. I was skeptical but have noticed no difference in available hot water. Mind you I live alone with weekend company. She does her laundry here (as well as mine) and still have never had a shortage of hot water with a forty gallon heater.

Re-do the math. A 4800watt , 240V heater when connected to 120V develops 1200W of heat.

 

[buickanddeere]

Stove top "burners" vary from 750W to 2250W. Ovens 2250W to 4800W. Each bank of heaters in a forced air electric furnace is usually 5000W or so and about 20amps.

 

[k0ua]

No idea what an electric furnace (assuming electric coils in the furnace?) pulls.

I don't know either, but mine has an 80 amp 240 volt breaker installed. And I can tell you this, the meter spins like a windmill in a hurricane when it is running on auxiliary heat.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I thought I may have made a mistake. I ws thinking amps, cut in half. And since it's I squared R, you are correct. But all the better. Less watts per sqare cm of heat on the elements to attract lime and such. And like I said, I noticed no lack of hot water. I can still scald myself at the kitchen tap!

Maybe if the utility (around here) would maintain their lines, there wouldn's be the huge interest in providing for oneself as far as power generation goes, and all the bad things that can come out of that. Backfeeding, fire, carbon monoxide poisoning and so forth. They can throw away Billions in Waste and mismanagement but just can't manage to cut the branches away from the lines. And when they do, they hire crews from south of the border! Go figure!

 

[4570Man]

If you plan on running electric heat you better get a big generator. I have a 20,000 BTU electric heater in my garage. I don't know the exact amp draw, but it is on a 30 amp 220 breaker. My upstairs heat is electric, and it has a 6 gauge wire running to it. I never use it because it is so expensive to run. If I had it to do over I would put in a gas upstairs. My primary heat is wood, and my downstairs furnace is gas. Sometimes it gets a little chilly upstairs, and it would be nice to have a furnace that didn't cost a fortune to run. As it is we use no heat upstairs and rely on the heat rising principle.

 

[clemsonfor]

That's always been my irritation with people talking about going off grid, that don't have a clue about consumption. I couldn't care less about CFLs, LEDs and electronics. I want to heat my house, dry my clothes (in the winter) ,take a hot shower and cook a hot meal. Electrically, those things are HUGE loads!

I have seen it a few times. People make the decision to go solar PV and then in short order get that many (expensive) panels, and batteries again. I think someone misrepresented something to them! Next they are buying a Diesel Generator, that was never in the initial concept either!

If you are in a remote location with no utility power, that's one thing. But if the utility comes by your place, that's the cheapest (and easiest) power in my opinion. Then it's just a matter of conservation.

They heat with wood in wood stoves. Its so hot and dry by the stove you dry your chlothes on a drying rack or line in the stove room and i bet that the chlothes dry faster with a fan in the room then they do outside in canada in the summer! least they would in my stove room than in summer

 

[KennyG]

If you plan on running electric heat you better get a big generator. I have a 20,000 BTU electric heater in my garage. I don't know the exact amp draw, but it is on a 30 amp 220 breaker. My upstairs heat is electric, and it has a 6 gauge wire running to it. I never use it because it is so expensive to run. If I had it to do over I would put in a gas upstairs. My primary heat is wood, and my downstairs furnace is gas. Sometimes it gets a little chilly upstairs, and it would be nice to have a furnace that didn't cost a fortune to run. As it is we use no heat upstairs and rely on the heat rising principle.

You might look into a some simple ductwork and a fan in the duct to circulate some air upstairs. It might be pretty cheap to do and supplement gravity. Make sure your duct outlet is located where it won't blow on people. Even if it's warm air, moving air feels cooler.

 

[CobyRupert]

That's a question like:
How much does a house cost?
What size are pants?

In the middle of the night when the heat has just turned off and the only electrical power being used is your alarm clock and electronic power supplies, the answer is probably (120V x .1 amps)= 12 watts.
When you wake up, turn on the lights, the electric heat, the stove burner for tea and take a shower, ( 200W+ 8000W, 1500W + 4500W) = 14,200 Watts.
So your answer might be is somewhere between 12 and 14,000 Watts

With solar, you need to think about "instantaneous power" needs (what you are using minute-by-minute) versus the "long time" energy needs (say what you use over the course of a day).
This will make you consider storage (batteries), generator supplement, or net metering (i.e. using the utility as "storage", obviously not available when the utility power goes out).

 

[MossRoad]

If you plan on running electric heat you better get a big generator. I have a 20,000 BTU electric heater in my garage. I don't know the exact amp draw, but it is on a 30 amp 220 breaker. My upstairs heat is electric, and it has a 6 gauge wire running to it. I never use it because it is so expensive to run. If I had it to do over I would put in a gas upstairs. My primary heat is wood, and my downstairs furnace is gas. Sometimes it gets a little chilly upstairs, and it would be nice to have a furnace that didn't cost a fortune to run. As it is we use no heat upstairs and rely on the heat rising principle.

On a side note about wood heat and upstairs... our wood burner is in the basement (only place we could put it). I put a duct over the stove and put a hi-temp in-line duct booster fan in the duct. The end of the duct is on the first floor. The fan is plugged into a greenhouse portable thermostat that is mounted between the floor joists in the basement ceiling and is set to 78 degrees. When the room heat up to 78, the fan comes on and blows a nice amount of heat upstairs. When the fire dies down in a day or two, the room cools down to about 75, the thermostat shuts the fan off so no cold air goes upstairs. Works great! The 6" fan was purchased from this company for about $40.

Aero-Flo Industries, Inc. - Axial Fans

Here's the thermostat at northern tool. I got if for about half that through another source.

Portable Thermostat | Thermostats| Northern Tool + Equipment

Sorry for the thread derail, now back to our regularly scheduled program...

 

[4570Man]

On a side note about wood heat and upstairs... our wood burner is in the basement (only place we could put it). I put a duct over the stove and put a hi-temp in-line duct booster fan in the duct. The end of the duct is on the first floor. The fan is plugged into a greenhouse portable thermostat that is mounted between the floor joists in the basement ceiling and is set to 78 degrees. When the room heat up to 78, the fan comes on and blows a nice amount of heat upstairs. When the fire dies down in a day or two, the room cools down to about 75, the thermostat shuts the fan off so no cold air goes upstairs. Works great! The 6" fan was purchased from this company for about $40. Aero-Flo Industries, Inc. - Axial Fans Here's the thermostat at northern tool. I got if for about half that through another source. Portable Thermostat | Thermostats| Northern Tool + Equipment Sorry for the thread derail, now back to our regularly scheduled program...

We have two of the fan boosters which work great. The fire just isn't enough heat on cold nights. We run the downstairs gas furnace on those nights, but it would be better to have a gas furnace on both floors.