Homemade hay steamer and electric bill

R

rogerted

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23 October 2007
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Have been using our homemade steamer for a while now ( wall paper steamer and wheelie bin) and got my electric bill this morning.. shock horror! It was 80 euro more than the last one. ( euro as in Ireland)
Anyone else notice that it's heavy on electric? Or maybe it's not and I have the washing machine on too much.
 
Not sure how many haynets you are steaming or how many horses you need to do this for Rogerted. My way was to put a couple of kettles of boiling water over the hay inside a dustbin with the lid on. Worked a treat but that was for two horses only.
 
I turn it on first thing and it keeps steaming until it cuts out! Which is a good while. And this is twice a day. Might do the kettle trick instead as that bill was just awful.
Thanks
 
I use a wallpaper stripper and bin too but I don't leave it on as long as you!!
It's like having a kettle at a constant boiling point, I leave mine on, after reaching boiling point for 3-4 mins and then just make sure that I leave the lid on the bin for another 10 minutes. It really fills the bin with steam after that time and seems to be enough time to do the job properly. I have a wheelie bin with a bale of hay in it at a time.
 
We modified a water butt. So you pop the haynets in, pour a couple of kettles of hot water in and leave it all to steam.

Then once finished, turn the tap at the bottom of the butt to empty the water out.
 
I have experimented with a wallpaper stripper and the boiling kettle methods, but neither seem to get into the middle of the hay. Also a normal dustbin doesn't take enough hay for 2. Still working on it. I slightly prefer the boiling kettle method.
 
I use haylage but just had one of those monitoring devices fitted at home and the amount of juice used by a kettle or anything with an element like that sends the display straight to red! I was shocked, just makes you think if it does that to your electric bill would it just be cheaper in the long run to use haylage, assuming your horse(s) does ok on it?
 
I use the wallpaper stripper method. Leave on for about 40 mins though for two loads of hay. I have thought about the leccy as I am on a yard but have justified myself that the water bill will go down as I was soaking it in a water butt before! May get a shock from the landlord soon !
 
You'll be able to calculate your electricity from the wattage of your steamer. A 2kWh steamer will use 2 kilo watts of electricity per hour.
So, say a wallpaper steamer is 2300 WpH (i.e. 2.3 kWpH) run for an hour a day and your electricity is 12p per kW then it will cost you 27.6p per day
Might be the washing machine ;-)
 
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