Wife buys expensive apple chips. I say let's just make them (for free) out of apples.
Just tried it. They're good. Sweet. Crisp. But.
It took a whopping four hours at 200 degrees for just one apple. How can I maybe calculate (roughly) the kilowatt hours it cost?
You can easily calculate the cost of running while the element is on, but once at temperature it will cycle. There is a calculator but I question accuracy as it does not take temperature into the mix. Maintaining 400 degrees will take more power than the same time at 200 degrees. This would be more of a max number as a guide.
It depends where you live. If you have the furnace on because it's January, any unused heat lowers the furnace cost. Of course electricity is probably more expensive what your furnace runs on but you can multiply by something.
I have a very simple Nesco that I picked up in a yard sale. They still make trays for it (link below) and I don't think it runs much electricity. Certainly less than an electric oven. They dry will in the sun with a little covering of cheese cloth. If you have a gas stove, you can get quite a bit done if your's still has a pilot in it.
Doesn't matter in my neck of the woods, the extra oven heat is very welcome. Nothing to go up the chimney, all added heat to the home.
Have you tried looking at your electric meter? Mine has an actual power display that reads to the nearest watt. If your base load is steady it isn't hard to see the peaks drawn by the oven and make an estimate of extra consumption. Automatic loads might have to turned off for the duration of the experiment, but the oven's signature should be fairly obvious.
If you know the element wattage, just timing the thermostat click on and off will give a pretty good hint.
bob prohaska
I had to look up what they were. Very finely-slices apple sprinkled with cinnamon that you bake. Sounds wonderful
Four hours sounds about right to dry fruit: evaporating water is fairly power-intensive. My mother used to dry fruit at a lower temp but overnight, because her house had a dual meter which gave cut-rate electricity from 11pm to 8am.
I'm surprised they haven't pre-dried them so that the oven time is limited to the amount needed for crisping them up.
Heating up to temperature takes more than keeping it there for the remaining approx 3¾ hrs, so measure them separately.
Read your meter Keep everything else on or off (ie no other changes) Turn on oven and heat to 200°F (watch that light) Note the time it took, and read the meter again Leave the oven at 200°F for whole hour Read the meter again
Now you can work out how many Kw it takes to get to 200°F /and/ how many units it takes for every hour after that. Then multiply by the cost of a Kw from your electricity company.
(Someone else check my logic here, please)
Peter
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