Electricity Bill on Arcade Machines in Commercial Settings

DreamTR

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Electricity Bill on Arcade Machines in Commercial Settings

I own one arcade with electricity included in the lease and another I do revenue share so I never see the bills.

I am opening another location in a mall and am concerned about the electricity.

Here is what I know. It says RATE 2, TAX 7.00 L5 CONSTANT 1

The bills per month in the summer for a 4,400 sq foot location with 0 arcade machines were

7533 KWD $636.39 $63.99 $700.38 (that was the total)

The highest I saw at the spot was 9528KWD at a total of $880.72

The old Cyberstation spot was running 40 or so machines maximum and the bill was usually about $650 a month with everything on 11 hours a day with 1,300 less of square footage.

Anyone have any idea if I run 50 games, a few lights, an XBOX 360 and a computer if my electric bill will be over $1000?
 
On average a single game uses between .8 and 1.4 amps (95 to 170 watts @ 120VAC).
Dual monitor or some specifically badly designed games (like Omega Race, Q*Bert) pull in well over 2 amps (240+ watts)

Assume worst case average is about 150 watts per game.

* 50 games = 7,500 watts + another 500 or so for FL lighting = 8,000 watts an hour.

Around here, we pay about 8.5 cents a KW/h for electricity so that's 68 cents an hour of electricity.

* 24 and you're at $16.32 a day
* 30 and you're at $489.60 a month

Now if you're unlucky enough to pay 17 cents a KW/h like a few parts of the country, then yes, you can hit $1,000 in electric bills each month with 50 games on 24/7/30. But that's on full. Cut down to 11 hours and you're looking at half that.
 
look at the bright side

If you live somewhere cold your supplanting heat energy and subtracting from your gas bill.:D
 
Ok, so what you guys are saying is that air conditioning and lights take more power than the machines?
 
Out of curiosity...which arcades do you own in TN? I've seen some awesome looking retro arcade on the net in that state, wondering if its you?
 
During the winter, assuming you have to heat the place, 100% of the energy that goes into the machines results in heat, which reduces your heat bill equivalently. If you have electric heat, it is a wash, if gas (usually cheaper), it just reduces your gas bill.

In the summer, assuming you have to cool the place, 100% of the energy that goes into the machines results in heat. You then have to also run an air conditioner to get the heat out of the building. I.e., you pay twice.

Converting the power supplies to switchers would help some. You might be able to find some LED flourescent bulbs in the right format which would also help. Other than that, you could possibly put in some motion detector sensors which would turn the machines on when someone gets near them and off when no one is around. Switching to LCD displays might save power but check or measure the difference before you try this.
 
That's all partially true but the machines aren't as efficient as an electric heater, so the heater would heat better while using less electricity.

theory's sound though, it would lower his heating bill, it just wouldn't be a wash.
 
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