Opticlimate system consuming tremendous amounts of electricity

[nemgrower202]

I have installed the Opticlimate system in a room 3m x 7m x 2m
with 12x 1200W Dimlux lights. I ran the system for 6 days with 4 lights on at 60%, the lights ran for 24hrs during the 6 days. The temperature inside was set to 24c. After 6 days I received an electric bill which says i consumed 500kwh/day
It this normal or is something off with the system?
The outside temperature was between 15c to 20c.
Any help with this would be of tremendous help

 

[Jimster]

something in't right. even at full brightness, 4000 watts for 24 hours = 96 Kwh. Maybe the entire 6 day period used 500Kwh, but unless you are supplementing your heat with a full time electric furnace, I don't think you would draw that much power.

 

[nemgrower202]

yeah its not the lights. its the opticlimate system itself that is the problem.
I just dont know if it is an energy monster or if its only optimal when all 12 light are turned on in the room which i find hard to believe.
at this energy consumption it would cost over 6k to run a 12 light room for a month.

 

[Jimster]

How big of an electrical service are you feeding it with? It would take a 100 amp service just to feed the lights, and that would be with no head room. Thats as much as many homes have. There is no way the system can make 8000 watts of energy disappear. Hmmmm.....

 

[nemgrower202]

the building is currently wired for 20 amps. soon it will be at 83 amps.
i am really baffled by this. i even emailed the supplier to ask what the hell is going on

 

[Jimster]

the building is currently wired for 20 amps. soon it will be at 83 amps.
i am really baffled by this. i even emailed the supplier to ask what the hell is going on

A 20 amp circuit wouldn't be good for more than about 3 lights, unless you are using 220 volts, which doubles the available wattage per circuit. At 110 Volts, a 20 amp circuit can supply 2400 watts of power, or 2.4 killowatts. 2.4 kilowatts x 24 hours , which is somewhere around 50 Kwh per day. What I am saying, is that you can't get more than about 2.4 kilowatts using your existing electrical capacity. Without throwing the breaker, you can only use about 50 kilowatt hours of electricity, more or less, in 24 hours. This is a LOT less than 500 Kwh/day by a factor of 10. If you got a bill for 500 Kwh/day of electricity, something is seriously wrong. FWIW, you can buy pass thru ammeters which will show you the actual electrical draw of a system. This would help to narrow down the culprit.

 

[Dan789]

@nemgrower202, indeed as @Jimster posted, something isn’t right with the billing, especially if you’ve only got a 20 amp service, 20 amp X 240 volts X 24 hours /1000 = max 115.2K Wwh/day. You’ll have to get someone that has some idea what’s going on, with the utility company, good luck.

 

[nemgrower202]

Yes, i am using 220 volts 3 phase and apparently i currently have 43 amps availble instead of 20.

 

[nemgrower202]

the bill says that total consumption for 6 days was of 2999 kwh. so i'm utterly baffled on how a cooling system can use so much power to cool 4 lights at 400w.