From Newsgroup: rec.food.baking

Wife buys expensive apple chips.
I say let's just make them (for free) out of apples.

Just tried it. They're good. Sweet. Crisp.
But.

It took a whopping four hours at 200 degrees for just one apple.
How can I maybe calculate (roughly) the kilowatt hours it cost?
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From Newsgroup: rec.food.baking

On 1/23/2022 8:41 PM, gtr wrote:

Wife buys expensive apple chips.
I say let's just make them (for free) out of apples.

Just tried it. They're good. Sweet. Crisp.
But.

It took a whopping four hours at 200 degrees for just one apple.
How can I maybe calculate (roughly) the kilowatt hours it cost?

You can easily calculate the cost of running while the element is on,
but once at temperature it will cycle. There is a calculator but I
question accuracy as it does not take temperature into the mix.
Maintaining 400 degrees will take more power than the same time at 200 degrees.
This would be more of a max number as a guide.

https://joteo.net/electricity-usage-calculator/electricity-usage-of-an-oven

Then there is this https://www.kitchenstewardship.com/cost-of-using-kitchen-appliances/
Electric oven at 350 degrees = 12-19 cents/hour, depending on which
figures you use
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From Newsgroup: rec.food.baking

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 23 Jan 2022 17:41:41 -0800, gtr
<xxx@yyy.zzz> wrote:

Wife buys expensive apple chips.
I say let's just make them (for free) out of apples.

Just tried it. They're good. Sweet. Crisp.
But.

It took a whopping four hours at 200 degrees for just one apple.
How can I maybe calculate (roughly) the kilowatt hours it cost?

It depends where you live. If you have the furnace on because it's
January, any unused heat lowers the furnace cost. Of course electricity
is probably more expensive what your furnace runs on but you can
multiply by something.
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From Newsgroup: rec.food.baking

On 1/23/2022 8:41 PM, gtr wrote:

Wife buys expensive apple chips.
I say let's just make them (for free) out of apples.

Just tried it. They're good. Sweet. Crisp.
But.

It took a whopping four hours at 200 degrees for just one apple.
How can I maybe calculate (roughly) the kilowatt hours it cost?

I have a very simple Nesco that I picked up in a yard sale. They still make trays for it (link below) and I don't think it runs much electricity. Certainly less than an electric oven. They dry will in the sun with a little covering of cheese cloth. If you have a gas stove, you can get quite a bit done if your's still has a pilot in it.

https://www.nesco.com/product-category/dehydrating/dehydrators/
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From Newsgroup: rec.food.baking

On 1/23/2022 20:41, gtr wrote:

Wife buys expensive apple chips.
I say let's just make them (for free) out of apples.

Just tried it. They're good. Sweet. Crisp.
But.

It took a whopping four hours at 200 degrees for just one apple.
How can I maybe calculate (roughly) the kilowatt hours it cost?

Doesn't matter in my neck of the woods, the extra oven heat is very
welcome. Nothing to go up the chimney, all added heat to the home.
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From Newsgroup: rec.food.baking

In rec.food.baking gtr <xxx@yyy.zzz> wrote:

Wife buys expensive apple chips.
I say let's just make them (for free) out of apples.

Just tried it. They're good. Sweet. Crisp.
But.

It took a whopping four hours at 200 degrees for just one apple.
How can I maybe calculate (roughly) the kilowatt hours it cost?

Have you tried looking at your electric meter? Mine has an actual
power display that reads to the nearest watt. If your base load is
steady it isn't hard to see the peaks drawn by the oven and make
an estimate of extra consumption. Automatic loads might have to
turned off for the duration of the experiment, but the oven's
signature should be fairly obvious.

If you know the element wattage, just timing the thermostat
click on and off will give a pretty good hint.

bob prohaska

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From Newsgroup: rec.food.baking

On 24/01/2022 01:41, gtr wrote:

Wife buys expensive apple chips.
I say let's just make them (for free) out of apples.

I had to look up what they were. Very finely-slices apple sprinkled with cinnamon that you bake. Sounds wonderful

It took a whopping four hours at 200 degrees for just one apple.

Four hours sounds about right to dry fruit: evaporating water is fairly power-intensive. My mother used to dry fruit at a lower temp but
overnight, because her house had a dual meter which gave cut-rate
electricity from 11pm to 8am.

I'm surprised they haven't pre-dried them so that the oven time is
limited to the amount needed for crisping them up.

How can I maybe calculate (roughly) the kilowatt hours it cost?

Heating up to temperature takes more than keeping it there for the
remaining approx 3-+ hrs, so measure them separately.

Read your meter
Keep everything else on or off (ie no other changes)
Turn on oven and heat to 200-#F (watch that light)
Note the time it took, and read the meter again
Leave the oven at 200-#F for whole hour
Read the meter again

Now you can work out how many Kw it takes to get to 200-#F /and/ how many
units it takes for every hour after that. Then multiply by the cost of a
Kw from your electricity company.

(Someone else check my logic here, please)

Peter
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