I am considering selling some of my prints (especially work tools) to coworkers, friends, and family. I know the cost of the filament, but not the cost of running the actual P1S. I would like to calculate a fair estimate of what I should add for at-cost running the unit. This would also help me know actual profit levels if I decide to get some money from my prints.
What is the general expected cost per hour (or so) for running the P1S?
Or, What is the amount of power generally used per hour for running the P1S?
If you have access to the power company meter for your residence you can take a clock reading of the meter with the printer not running for a period of say 8 hours then take another reading and call that your baseline electric consumption with no printer.
Then same period of day butwith an 8 hour print, do the same. Take a start reading, print for 8 hours, take a second reading.
Subtract first reading from second reading with the base line numbers and the print numbers and that will give you how many KWh you use baseline and how much that increases when the printer runs. Your utility bill should tell how many cents per KWh you pay and from there simple math. Your printer costs so much per hour to run.
No input re: the P1S, but the A1 draws between 100-400W depending on what it’s doing.
Get a kill-a-watt (or similar). They are an incredibly useful measurement tool to have, and are cheap. Clear it, do a couple-hour print, take a measurement, multiply by the number on your power company’s bill, bobs your uncle
To continue one more layer deeper on Malc’s number - 12.2kWh per month at 1/4 utilization (6hr/24) would boil down to about $10 per month if you were to keep the printer humming 24/7 and use my power company’s rate. (12.2 * 4 * 0.18)
From different sources I’ve found online, (and the arguments there are crazy,) it depends a lot on if you are using 110V or 220V. It also uses more power when initially heating, meaning that five individual hour-long prints would cost more than one five-hour print. But not by much. It also makes a difference what material you are using. I mostly use PETG, and from what I gather, that is a middle ground number if you do some ABS and TPU as well as some PLA. There was an awful lot of math involved that hurt my brain. It has been 15 years since I earned my CET, and my current job doesn’t need to remember the calculations. So here are the rough averages I managed to find (assuming US standard voltages):
300-350 W initial heating with 130-200 W running.
Initial heating takes about 6 minutes.
My personal local cost for electricity in peak hours is 14 cents.
If my calculations are right (and using higher end numbers), that means it costs about 3 cents per hour to run the unit.
It costs about .476 cents for every print plus about 2.6 cents for the first hour and 2.94 cents each additional hour. All-in-all, it is cheaper than I thought and fairly negligible.
Anyway, it looks like I no longer need responses, though I hope this might help someone else.
I suppose now a similar question is how much ware and tare on the unit. I did some research and it looks impossible to calculate the maintenance cost per build.
If you’re focused on business math, I budget 10k print hours till it depreciates to 0. Then it joins the junker fleet of ender clones in the corner, to be abused when needed (I have not reached 10k yet on any of my printers.)
I like the general idea. So if I paid a thousand dollars for the unit and all its extras to begin with, then add on a charge of ten cents per hour for maintenance as a basic base cost. Seems reasonable.
I have seen that guy’s videos before when I was researching machines and filaments. I like what he says. That is a great video and has a link to the spreadsheet. I appreciate it.
I’m surprised nobody mentioned this but one indispensable tool for every household and/or shop is a Kill-o-Watt power meter or the 100s of variations. I have three of them kicking around the house and you can even enter in what you pay per KWH to find out the expense of electricity at the outlet level. While these are not scientific great they are what our Chinese friends would call “Chabuduo” (差不多).
Here’s the US listing but just do a search on any site or home improvement store. They are available in every country that has electricity. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=power+meter
These used to be pricey when I got my first one back in 2007(like $69). Now they are dirt cheap. If you pay more than $15/unit, you got ripped off. There’s no reason to not have more than one if for nothing else, to monitor electricity hogs in your office or home.
Albeit not in your (as always) deep amount of details.
I have smart plugs on every single socket, not just for printers, ones compatible with the Smart Life app. The app adds the extra ability of seeing total usage and grouped usage.
You can read the data in any way you want on the app.
You can also schedule them to turn on or off after a timer or event.
You can also trigger them based on other external factors.
(I have not reached 10k yet on any of my printers.)
