Electric Kiln

bernardgreen said:

"Just plug it in" or "just get an electrician to connect it "

Which of those is going to have the most sales,

Looking at the sales data this version has fewer operating modes than the version that has to be hard wired to a 16 amp supply.

But still the idea of 13 amps continuous draw from 13 amp plug is not good.

Also it is rated and being resistive heating when the supply is 253 volts ( 230 +10% tolerance ) the current drawn is likely to be 14.3 amps.

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Just measured the supply and it's 245v. I suspect that's the highest its likely to be but I'm going to watch it at different times to see how much it varies

Tigercubrider said:

Kilns are not ovens.
They cycle power to dry out moisture and drive out trapped air, slowly going to set temperatures in stages and turning off again. Over time they will build up to high temperatures but do this in stages and then slowly climb back down
The power is not on "heat" for most of the time. The lining retains heat and is boosted now and again to acquire the programmed stages

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Thank you for that! It's good to have opinions from people who know electrics but probably more so to have someone who knows how kilns work. This makes much more sense.

That's fair enough with more knowledge about how these kilns work, I looked at the link and read the following:

Power Rating:
Single Phase / Volts 230 / 13 amps / Watts 3000
NB Always size electrical supply for "continuous" load**

I can't see anything else relating to the two stars **

Tigercubrider said:

Kilns are not ovens. .... They cycle power to dry out moisture and drive out trapped air, slowly going to set temperatures in stages and turning off again. Over time they will build up to high temperatures but do this in stages and then slowly climb back down .... The power is not on "heat" for most of the time. The lining retains heat and is boosted now and again to acquire the programmed stages

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Indeed, but that's not peculiar to kilns. Even if it were an oven, left on continuously at its maximum temperature setting, it would use nothing like its maximum power continuously - over any appreciable period of time, the average power consumed would only be a fraction of the 'maximum'.

I have no electric cookers, ovens or hobs, but earlier this year I posted here the results of some experiments I undertook using a 1,700 W deep fat fryer, which I switched on from cold and ran for an hour or so at ‘chip frying temperature’. Whilst this is not an ideal model, it’s probably not a bad model of the likely behaviour of an oven. What I found is illustrated in the graphs below.

As can be seen, the average (RMS) power consumed by the 1,700 W appliance fairly quickly settles down to around 600 W, meaning that the heating of cables etc. will be approximately the same as with a load drawing ~600 W continuously - i.e. an average of only just over a third of the appliance's maximum power consumption.

[ note that the few brief periods of ‘low' (<1,700 W) consumption result from the fact that, although data is collected once every ~12 seconds, the stored data I have toi work with are ‘1-minute averages'. Hence, if the element was only ‘on’ for part of a 1-minute period, the indicated consumption will be a corresponding fraction of 1,700 W ]





Kind Regards, John