How much power do 3D Printers use?

I've always wondered how much electricity 3D Printers use, and how much they cost to run... So I put it to the test!

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[CNCKitchen]

Thanks for the shout-out, Angus! Great insight into the power consumption of different printers and materials.

[Abdega]

If you lower the heat to reduce energy consumption, I guess you could say you…







*TURN DOWN FOR WATTS!*

[NullHyp]

If it helps anyone: I tested my ender3 with a 9h print.
The hot end was at 205°C and the heated bed was 60°C. The printer drew an average of 70.1W.

[gregclare]

Hi Maker's Muse. Given that maintaining the temperature of the hotbed appears to be a large contributor to power usage, it would be really interesting to see how this compared if the Cocoon was put inside an enclosure (as you normally would for improved ABS printing).
I suspect you might find a good power saving, as the heat loss (and therefore energy required to maintain the hotbed temperature) would be greatly reduced by the increased ambient temperature inside the enclosure.

[alejandromarquezcarrillo]

Thanks, I'm new to 3D printers and looking for data on electric comsumption for my Ender 3, now I know what to do.

[pauligrossinoz]

Good video, and thanks! 👍

Some purely a technical issues with your wording:

1. kW-hr is a measure of _energy_ not a measure of power. (It can also be measured in Joules.)

2. The _rate at which energy used_ is known as the _power, _ and is measured in Watts.

Just so you know...

[Elswalbe]

I am falling in love with your channel, Angus! I love your design challenge enthusiasm, how you are dynamic with solving problems, and your big unending smile.

[Chronically_ChiII]

Can you please include power consumption in future reviews. It seems crucial.

[gorusss]

I have one of the Aldi printers and ended up making an enclosure for it. It would be interesting to find out how much the enclosure reduces the cost of printing ABS??

[stephenshoihet]

Where i live it's $0.10 CAD per KWh so compared to the cost of the printer, the filament and my time, the electricity is almost nothing :-) Power and energy seem to confuse a lot of people, recently i was doing some research for a solar/battery project and found that it's very common for people to misuse/confuse units of KW with KWh. The easiest way to understand a derived unit is to look at its base units.

Consider what it costs for heating and cooling... an electric space heater in north america is usually rated at 1500W so it sucks up energy pretty quickly. Central air conditioning is about 3500W and about 3000W for a clothes dryer.

[AdrianWolf_in_TO]

Very informative video! I didn't think the differences would be that great (and for a shorter print time maybe it wouldn't be) but for a day long print it really shows the increase. Thanks for the video.

[garyainslie]

Good review, I didn't actually realise you were in Australia. Just starting out with an Ender 3 and using your videos as a bible. thanks for the great content

[blackroseanjel]

Now is when I love living in a state that produces so much power, we only pay $0.027 /kwh.
Very informative video, thank you!!

[davidbradshaw]

I have that exact same wattmeter I think :-). If you want to compare the motor usage excluded from the nozzle AND the heatbed, you can run a print on “dry run” setting, which won’t get you exact due to the extruder, but the extruder will be the least used motor during a print anyway, when you take away the heated elements.

Just food for thought...

[snowwolvesproductions]

Thanks. I was wondering how much... I've been running mine, night and day, to make the parts for the lowrider2 cnc... Real eye opener. Thanks for your useful content!!!

[freemanthompson]

Your videos are educational, informative, and motivating. Thank you, Angus.

[PaganWizard]

Great video as always. Here in the USA, most of us pay our electric bill every month, rather than quarterly. So while it may cost us a dollar or so to make each individual print, I don't think that the average hobbyist is going to go buck wild printing everything under the sun, and rack up $200 or $300 USD for electricity just in 3D printing alone. I personally am in the stage of wanting a printer and saving up to buy one, but without even having one, my summertime electric bill (which includes central A/C, all my appliances, TV's, computers, and whatever else) is about $250 a month. As a hobbyist, I could see doing a few prints a month on average. I do realize that once I do get my printer, I will be making more than that, in the early weeks and months, just to figure out how everything works, and to make any adjustments or upgrades, but once it is dialed in, like I said, just a few pieces a month. If someone IS using $200 to $300 a month in electricity just for 3D printing alone, on top of all the other electricity used in their homes, to me, it sounds like 3D printing is something far greater than just a a source of income (or out of control obsession) at that point.

[jayupstateny]

Great video, I as wondering about cost per kilowatt hour. You answered exactly what I wanted. And I thought it was so interesting, you ran a print on an unheated bed. When I first got my printer, the bed heated to 50. The next time it printed, it heated to 60 and has been 60 ever since. I never bothered to change it. Now I'll definitely experiment with lowering the bed heat.

[peterleblanc]

Nice test Angus. I've done similar test on my printer. Power consumption from least to most: Motors, nozzle heater, bed heater, chamber heater. My printer sits at about 90w/h while printing PLA, but It can hit over 1200w/h while all the heaters are on.

[dtibor]

I checked the power usage with a smart plug. At warmup ender 3V2 uses 270W, while printing PETG it varies around 100-130W. Isolating the heatbed helps to reduce power usage. The 3 stepper motors on my printer use about 24 watts