Thanks for the input guys! Excellent info!
I've only ever seen one shop, with three phase power, and
no demand meter. And that meter went back I think into
the early 20s. I told the guy buying the building, "never
let them in to change that meter...."
I think there used to be a non-demand meter like that where I'm at now...power company came in around 2000 or so and changed it over to a digital one (ie. demand meter)...unfortunately, I'm afriad if they decide they want to change the meter there's not much choice in the matter...
Won't the power company tell you what the charges are?
I'm kind of scared to call them up and ask them...
One inquiring about such things might invite some unwanted attention...but I did find this online-
Energy supplied hereunder will be delivered through not more than 1 single-phase or 1 polyphase
meter. Billing demand in KW shall be taken each month as the single highest 30-minute integrated peak in KW as registered during the month by a 30-minute integrating demand meter or indicator, or at the Company's option, as the highest registration of a thermal-type demand meter. For accounts over 100 KW, monthly billing demand established hereunder shall not be less than 60% of the greater of (a) the customer's contract capacity in excess of 100 KW, or (b) the customer's highest previously established monthly billing demand during the past 11 months in excess of 100 KW. In no event shall the monthly billing demand be less than 5 KW for any account.
I'd say it'll be near impossible to keep the demand under 10kW unless you're working by yourself and only using home shop size machines.
Very true, so far I have been able to stay under 10KW here...just trying to make plans for the future in getting stuff installed at the new location...like I just got a CNC lathe that has a 15 HP main drive motor on it (runs pretty much everything on it, so its about running all the time the lathe is on) So it would be a good deal just to run the lathe alone if need be to avoid the demand charge...
FWIW They roughly charge 13.80 a month plus 5.33 cents a KWH for the small general service (under 10KW) The next larger service is 24.00 a month, plus additional costs for transmissin, distribution (even if you don't use any electricity) (must be the demand charge) The electricity is a little cheaper at 4.77 cents a KWH, however it can be much more expensive with the demand charges, up to a max of 14.35 cents per KWH!
So I guess the question that remains is what does KW stand for? By what I found with what the power company said in their online document, it isn't an average use of KWH like JunkyardJ said...
Eric