Thread: Developments in Dust Sensor tech

Originally Posted by BobL

Cost of running Particle counters.

I've had these small USB interconnect Power monitors for a couple of years that I use to determine the power draw of my Ardunio projects and decided to check out what it costs to run my USB powered particle detectors.

PartDetectPowr.jpg


The home made particle detectors use large bright segmented LED displays that can be seen from some distance, and also have SD card storage capability.
The current consumption varies between 80 and 110 mA but on average consume about 100 mA.
At 28c/kWhr this translates to 0.7c/hr which does not sound like much but if they are left on 24/7 over a 2 month billing cycle this adds up to ~$10.

The bought particle counters are those referred to further back in this thread uand se a small TFT display and no data storage so they only use uses about $5 per billing cycle.

The other issue is, I have been running 2 of my home made detectors (one in my study and one in the shed) plus 2 bought ones (to see how they compare), plus a CO2 meter that uses $7.50 per billing cycle. And they're all on 24/7.

All this adds up to $37.50 per billing cycle or $225 a year!

I think your calculations are off. 100mA @ 5V is 1/2W or 12Wh/day .7kWh/billing cycle. Looks like you were assuming the 100mA was at 240V.

Australia grid voltage is 220V

Originally Posted by gregf83

I think your calculations are off. 100mA @ 5V is 1/2W or 12Wh/day .7kWh/billing cycle. Looks like you were assuming the 100mA was at 240V.

Whoops, BIG MISTAKE, Thanks - OK Divide everything by ~48 makes it about $5 year! OK will leave it on then.

WA is 240V. Over the years I've logged it a few times in my shed - typically its between 323 and 250 and yes it does average 240V
In the 1980s we monitored it last work because it sat around 250V and damaged a few sensitive bits of 220V gear.
The energy authority didn't believe us so we monitored it for a few months and showed them
We used various bits of gear to step down the voltage to 220V, some various etc - then we bought a big exxy 20kVA stabilised transformer to run the lab. it was set at 230 and it held that to 0.1V for a couple of decades.

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

Australia grid voltage is 220V

Nope.

Australia has a nominal 230v standard. In 1983 there was a 20 year plan to move from nominal 240v to nominal 230v but much of the country still runs on the high side.
(There is of course an allowable +/- range)

Mine runs 240-253v when I've checked.

Annoying because I've needed to use buck transformers to reduce the voltage a bit for expensive electronics rated for 220v +/-10%.

Originally Posted by pippin88

Nope.

Australia has a nominal 230v standard. In 1983 there was a 20 year plan to move from nominal 240v to nominal 230v but much of the country still runs on the high side.
(There is of course an allowable +/- range)

Mine runs 240-253v when I've checked.

Annoying because I've needed to use buck transformers to reduce the voltage a bit for expensive electronics rated for 220v +/-10%.

Wots 10V between friends when the supply varies that much.