Ask the CNCKing: What are the electricity costs of running a CNC laser?

What are the electricity costs of running a CNC laser? Sandra asked me this question while I was online and it’s a question that I’ve been wondering myself. Just to clarify before going through the video, my friend with a 400W HSE 100 by Kern Laser and his total power requirements for both this laser and the two extraction units and fan is a total of 90 amps or 240 volts which averages over the course of a month to 26 cents per kilowatt hours. For the Eiffel Tower quote, I’m throwing-in the cost of labor (assembly isn’t free), material, file optimization and operator (staff) hours.

Ask the CNCKing: What are the electricity costs of running a CNC laser? Transcript

Today’s question is from Sandra who visited CNCKing.com and asked me how much does it cost to operate a laser? Well, let’s find out!

(intro)

The price of a laser depends on the price per minute you are paying for electricity. If you pay no money for electricity then you’re getting a great deal but that doesn’t really exist unless you have your own solar power station and even then, you need to purchase that first.

So let’s simplify things here, I had a buddy take a look at his laser, he has a 400W HSE 100 Kern Laser and his rates are between 11 and 56 cents per kilowatt hour. Generally he’s paying 26 cents per kilowatt hour. He worked it out and he averages 93 cents per minute. To make this easy, you are looking at roughly 60$ an hour.

Now, that’s just the electricity to run the machine. He has two extraction systems on it along with a fan. You might thing, “hey, this is really good margins” as lasers cost 200-400$ an hour to get things cut if you bring them in yourself.

This 60$/h only covers electricity, it doesn’t include material, the expense of the machine, experience or overhead. By the end of the day, it’s still a profitable business but not as profitable as some may think.

I designed this Eiffel Tower recently, this tower is a meter and a half tall. It takes roughly 16 hours to cut (60W machine, 4mm material). So 16 hours x 200 = 3200 so roughly 3-4K just to cut this model.

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If you have any other questions, visit CNCKing.com and I’ll answer the questions as best as I can. You might be wondering here, if you go to a larger laser to cut metal what the electricity costs would be. I don’t know, I’ve seen some industrial lasers with 2-3KW systems and I don’t want to see their electricity bills as they are probably astronomical. That’s why you have companies using plasma cutters as they are generally cheaper to operate to cut the same guage metal. I’ll see you in the next video.