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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