I bought a paraffin bath (good for aching parts) and want to know how much it costs to run, let's say, per hour +-.
Called the local elec co, but lady said she couldn't give a figure by the hour, only in KWH. Also depends on whether I want to keep it on all the time, or shut on & off.
But my decision (on or on&off) depends on the relative costs.
Chicken - egg?
Anybody have an approximation?
Appliance is 120 volt, 100 watt. It has a setting to heat up the paraffin, another setting to maintain operating temp., and another setting for "solid" (what's the point of that one?)
If it is marked "100 watt" (which is probably for the highest setting), it uses one tenth of a KWH each hour. The medium setting is probably half that, so maybe one twentieth of a KWH. Look on your electric bill to find out how much each KWH costs -- probably around 5 to 10 cents. So you are looking at about a dime or a quarter per day to run it full time.
-Kev> I bought a paraffin bath (good for aching parts) and want to know how
Here in Scottsdale AZ, it's 9 cents/KWH. It's actually split between 3.9 cents/KWH for "delivery" and 5.2 cents/KWH "energy". Plus, of course, a $10 monthly service charge and another 7.5% for taxes.
So. Calif has a low income rate of 11.8 cents/KWH. Regular would be
20% more. *
I also learned something that may be of interest to others.
When elec co. heard that I was using paraffin bath for accident injuries (recommended by therapist) they said there is a "medical baseline" rate which gives extra advantage. Have to make out an app. & have doctor sign.
I'd much rather NOT have the injuries and not have the paraffin bath!
But, as I said above, this may be of interest to others who are using an appliance for medical reasons and don't know -- as I did not know
-- that there can be a special "baseline" in such cases.
*(Utilities have always been high in So.Calif. But special thanks must go to Bush's Enron and other energy crook friends who were caught on tape joking about shafting "Grandma Millie"" during the artificial energy crisis in Calif a few years ago that was engineered right out of the White House for the benefit of its great friends and contributors. Suddenly plants were taken off line for "maintenance"
-- hmmm...what a coincidence. Law of supply and demand kicks in. Also anybody can check out the precipitous drop in natural gas rates when El Paso's monopoly ended.)
The White House did not pass laws in California regulating power generation prices nor did the White House lock in elevated rates on the futures market. Nor did the White House prevent energy companies from building new power plants in the state.
You can't blame the energy companies when California bent over and said "Screw me!"
P.T. Barnum said: "Never let a sucker keep his money." It's the American way.
I certainly don't see anything in here that looks like $.25 per=20 KWH:
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Here in VT it's about $.12/kWH similar to NYC, from what I can=20 gather from the above link). I noticed the lowest in the US is KY=20 at $.044/kWH.
In the interest of honesty, a value sadly lacking in each of the major political parties, please note that the Caifornia energy de regulation was carried ot by STATE GOVERNMENT, led by Democrat Governor Grey Davis (remember, he got recalled?) and a STATE LEGISLATURE which had both houses controlled by Democrats.
While it makes a great urban legend, Bush had nothing to do with the Enron theft in California.
Bush has a lot else to answer for, but the Enron rape of California residential rate payors isn't his responsibility.
Don't you just hate it when those pesky facts get in the way?
Wake up and smell the coffee! Nowhere did I say that the Bushies overtly planned the Calif. debacle, but their tentacles certainly reached into Enron (remember the late, unlamented Ken Lay - is he really dead, BTW, or sipping margharitas somewhere while his family enjoys the wealth that would have gone to his victims). Radical Republican tentacles also into El Paso natural gas. Did you carefully NOT notice that the price dropped like a stone when their monopoly ended? And on and on.
Do you think that Cheney will now be forced by the new majority to release those top-secret notes on his meetings with the energy barons
-- who, everybody knows, wrote the legislation that the pussies in Congress allowed to become law -- for the SOLE benefit of Big Energy and screw the environment our children will have to live in.
Do you have a glimmer of doubt that the K Street lobbyists WRITE the damn legislation on this and other money-makers for Corporate America?
California certainly did NOT perform the anatomical act you describe above. We consumers were NOT damaged by Gray Davis, who himself was the victim of rampant Republican criminality and mud-slinging (What a laugh when they smeared him for fund-raising -- did you happen to notice that is *Arnold's* main occupation?)
It was the *energy companies* that artificially boosted the price in Calif -- and heartlessly laughed about it in their phone conversations and emails. Did you happen to notice above where they took plants off-line for (sudden!) maintenance, so the price would shoot up and we'd have blackouts?
If you're not familiar with the screwing that we consumers took out here, better study up before you pontificate!
Yes you did. You said: "... artificial energy crisis... engineered out of the white house for the benefit of its great friends..."
You misunderstand. George Bush has zip to do with oil companies. Nada. Then consider Haliburton: Haliburton does not look for oil, drill for oil, transport oil, refine oil, or have any market at all in oil.
Now George's dad (Bush 41) came to Texas after WW2 and, with only a few million in his jeans, and did manage to make it big in the 'oil bidness.' That's what you did in Texas in the late '40s! You sure as shit didn't try to corner the market on cheese.
El Paso Natural Gas was a federally and state regulated utility. The regulatory agencies, overseen by elected politicians, are responsible for setting the prices - or determining the mechanisms by which prices are established. El Paso didn't make the rules; don't blame them for playing by them.
No, I don't think Cheney will be forced to disclose anything about his meetings. If the consequences of engery action results in screwing the environment, well I might be for that, depending on the other outcomes. Saving the 'environment' is not a suicide pact.
Virtually ALL laws are written by lobbyists. Always have been. Do you want tariffs on hydrogenated yak-fat decided by someone who doesn't even know what yak-fat is?
Well, I know. I was being metaphorical.
Who mentioned Gray Davis?
Fund raising is the avocation of all politicians. It's how you do it that matters.
You simply do not understand that state mandated regulations always result in the consumer getting screwed. Private, free-market enterprises, even if they are monopolies, almost always result in lower prices. The arch-villain, John D. Rockefeller, managed to lower the price of Kerosene from $3.00/gallon to less than five cents. In three years. Of course this put the whale-oil people out of business and, had there been sufficient regulatory agencies to protect whalers back then, we'd probably still be reading by candles and oil lamps.
I am familiar. The screwing was mainly self-inflicted. You STILL have the highest gasoline and electric rates in the nation. But, with a Republican governor, you're not still in the dark.
Meanwhile, you have hydroelectric plants that buy power at night to run pumps to move the water back UP into the reservoirs so they'll have something to drive the generators during the day.
If it uses a thermostat to switch the heater on and off to maintain the operating temperature you could probably place a box shaped cover over it when it's not in use, perhaps just some glued up pieces of styrofoam sheet. That could reduce the heat losses considerably.
However, from the way you describe the switch labeling, there's a good chance that it doesn't use a thermostat, in which case forget my suggestion because things might get dangerously hot if the natural heat losses are reduced.
krw wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net:
House here is rebuilt and up for sale. Will be going to Williston. Just in time for Feb. Haven't seen snow and the coldest I've seen in past 3 yrs is 15...once. They had red warning bars on TV from the NWS about the deathly bitter cold. Heck, back there it's a party because the rock salt starts working when it gets up to 15! I think I have a little re-acclimation to do:-(
I'm not the OP but I do live in NYC and buy my electricity from Con Ed. My October bill was $102.13 for an energy consumption of 480 KWH. That includes everything, taxes, adjustment factor etc. and works out to $0.21 per KWH. If I had have consumed less than 258.3 KWH (!) my rate would have been about 10% higher and of course if I had have consumed only one KWH the cost per KWH would have been $11.78 . I suspect that the rate in the pdf file you quoted "Market Supply Charge" is the actual cost of electricity not including the delivery charge (or the delivery charge not including the cost of electricity).
That's what I'm doing (rebuilding the house). It'll be up for sale=20 in January, I hope.
Well, in Feb. you might see 15F once here too, but that'll be the=20 high. ;-) It's been so wet here (something like 50% above normal=20 rain) the frost line will likely be down so far the Chinese will=20 have cold feet. ;-)=20
Buy good boots and make sure your car battery is in good shape.
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