3D printing is a technology that has been around for a while, but its popularity has suddenly exploded.. In fact, today, 3D printers are sold in a number of retail outlets, and 3D printing services are offered by a number of local businesses. Let’s take a look at how much electricity does a 3D printer uses and how much you will have to pay for its use.
A typical 3D printer uses roughly 70 watts of electricity with the nozzle set to 205 degrees C and the heated bed set to 60 degrees C. If you print for ten hours, your 3D printer’s power usage per hour will be roughly 0.7 kWh. Given that the average cost of power in the United States is $0.13 per kWh, a 10-hour print will set you back $9.
Of all, they are only averages, so let’s get down to business.
Determining how much power your 3D printer uses
Each printer is unique and uses slightly varied quantities of electricity. The heated bed and the nozzle are the biggest power users on the 3D printer.
Because the nozzle is nearly always heated with DC power, the absolute most it can consume is 360 watts if your printer has a 12V power source with 30 amps. This, however, is excessive, and you’ll never estimate how much electricity a 3d printer use.
Some printers utilize DC power for the heated bed, while others use AC power. If your printer heats the bed using DC power, it won’t consume more than the 360 watts we specified before. However, if your heated bed runs on DC power, it will use a few more watts in addition to the DC power source.
Installing a smart plug is the greatest method to receive a highly precise picture of how much electricity your printer needs.
How to make your 3D printing more efficient
Even if the cost of operating a 3D printer isn’t very large, you may want to maximize its efficiency. Here are some ideas for getting the most money out of your printer:
Increase heat efficiency
The 3D printer uses the greatest power while the nozzle and heated bed are heating up, as we saw above. Because heat naturally moves from hotter to colder locations, if the ambient temperature surrounding your 3D printer is chilly, your printer will have to work more to keep the nozzle and bed temperatures consistent.
The simplest solution is to construct a 3D printer housing.
Enclosures aid in the insulation of the printer and the retention of heat inside the printing area. It won’t be hot enough to melt your prints, but it will trap heat within, preventing your components from rising off the bed prematurely.
Print with low-temperature filaments
PLA can be used for most daily prints, therefore if you want to save money on electricity, stick to PLA instead of other filaments that demand higher temperatures.
Try printing at the lowest possible temperature while still getting decent results. Any temperature higher than that is a waste of energy.
You can also get away without utilizing a heated bed if your components don’t have too much contact with the print bed. To obtain excellent adherence, just use painter’s tape or glass with a little glue stick or hairspray. This is the most important guide for how much electricity or power a 3d printer uses.
How much Electricity does an Ender 3 have?
The Ender 3 consumes roughly 0.5 kWh of power on average. However, this is a very rough estimate, and the only way to know for sure what your real power consumption is to test it yourself!
Conclusion:
I hope you now have a better idea of how much electricity a 3D printer uses. As you can see, it’s little when compared to the amount of energy used by other popular home equipment. An air conditioner, for example, consumes around 3.5 kWh.
Only when you’re pricing your 3D printing services do you need to factor in the cost of power. Even if the cost of operating the printer is just a few cents, it is excellent business sense to include it in your final price.
