Re: Power Query

["E. Lee Dickinson" <lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Beamer Smith" <beamer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:jcc5s2lj3fi2hu3jek410b0roi234hk8rp@xxxxxxxxxx
>A bit of a stretch for this group but the experts seem to be here.
> Our building wants to install seperate meters for our power in part to
> mitigate the expence of the condo's  power bill.
> The building is 208V  but most abbliances are 220. I know for example
> that my mother can boil a pot of water in about 5 minutes on her 220
> service and 22 stove (not new or efficient)  but on my 208 service and
> 220 stove it takes much longer.
> Q: Am I paying more to boil a pot of water or not?
> Some say that the meter doesn't work that way and that if I had a 12V
> service and 24 hours to boil the water it would be the same as 208 for
> much less time..
> Help me out here folks...

My thought is that it takes a fixed amount of total energy input to boil a
pot of water. Wether a low input is applied over a long time versus a higher
input over a shorter time doesn't make much difference.

However, this may not be true, when you think it down to the extremes. In
your example, it is likely the 12v input would NEVER boil the water, as the
thermal loss would be greater (or at least equal) to the thermal input. So
you could run the 12v heater in perpetuity and boil nothing but dollars.

So I suppose a higher temperature is probably more effecient. Measurable in
dollars? That would be an interesting experiment.