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My new Kill A Watt electricity load meter and monitor arrived a week ago. I smoked a few items and measured the electrical consumption of my Cookshack Elite and thought the results might be interesting to share:

Product Smoked---------Temp Setting-------------- Smoke Time-----Kilowatts--------- Cost @13c/K.W. hr.

Beans-------------------235*---------------------- 4.5 hrs.---------1.7---------------$ .221
Almonds, sausage-------180-235*(2 hrs/temp)-------4.0 hrs.---------1.4---------------$ .182
St. Louis Ribs(3# ea.)----250*----------------------5.0 hrs.---------1.9----------------$ .247
Pork Butt---------------250*-----------------------8.1 hrs.---------2.6----------------$ .338

Our local California Tier 3 electrical rates are over 15c/kilowatt hr., and I believe some of you back east may have lower rates than this. If so, your costs will be lower to operate your units. For the example, I used a blended rate to compensate for our lower 1 and 2 tier rates.

I smoked a batch of Smokin's BBQ beans, 3 lbs of almonds, a dozen Italian sausages, 2 slabs of St. Louis ribs, and a pork butt. Total cook time was around 22 hrs for a total cost of under a buck. While I smoked the 4 items individually as shown on different days, I could have, also, smoked some of these items together lowering the cost substantially.

I really believe the 850* insulation keeps the electrical usage down and helps the Cookshack smoker to run efficiently. Thanks QNorth for the heads up on the Kill A Watt.
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Thats some good stuff Pags. If I read it right the smoker actually gets cheaper the longer you smoke. That is, compared to the early part of the cycle.I feel better now that its cheaper to smoke than buy a newspaper that is filled with bias information.When you do your next brisket please add it so we can see the results.
Cal. If you think about it, once the smoker heats up and the mass you're smoking begins to heat, the less the element needs to be on in that insulated environment.

Smokin. You like gadgets just like me. More so, I believe.

If you notice QNorth's post on the subject, it only cost him $ .09 to smoke almonds. That's half what it cost me to smoke my almonds. So I took a look. His temperature averaged 15% less than mine. His smoke time was 25% less than mine. His electrical rates average 44% less than mine.
Actually I've be shocked if the FEC isn't lower.

Realize it's not running a 750/1000 watt element for heat. It only runs the ignitor for the first few minutes. After that it's just two fans; and they don't blow all the time only as needed (a feature of the IQ4) SOooooooo, there will be times the only electricity needed is the LCD display.

But I'll put it on next time I run mine. My FE at home is the old traeger with the dial control, not the IQ.

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