13 replies to this topic

[WelshPaul]

Was wondering how much a fruit machine costs to run per hour? anyone??

[cardie]

voltwise not too much as i think the PSU doesnt have a higher out put that about 24v or 48v


I would say about as much as a TV would an hour

[fruitman69]

Hi,
We used to base it on about 300w


so at todays electricity prices about 4p per hr

[hurricane]

i dont think it costs much when its in 'attract mode' its just when its getting played,

[cardie]

i dont think it costs much when its in 'attract mode' its just when its getting played,

think about all them bulbs flashing on and off


when its being played not much happens until your on a feature or any thing


im sure the reels will make up for that

[Guitar]

think about all them bulbs flashing on and off


when its being played not much happens until your on a feature or any thing


im sure the reels will make up for that

Actually the lights arent as power hungry as you would think. The lamps are multiplexed and each "string" of lights is only on for 1/8th the time. So even with 256 lamps you only have a maximum of 32 lamps on at once. The reels however use quite a chunk of energy, also the payout solenoids, but obviously not for very long.

[stanmarsh14]

The PSU's in the back of them, tend to be round the same wattage total, as what you would find in the back of a PC Tower surprisingly.

PSU on my JPM Give Us A Break Club, is a 450w, and the Barcrest Super Blackjack Club, is a 400w.

I would think power wise (Based on what my 2 PC towers use in my flat (On 24/7), along with kitchen items, and some lights), is about a fiver a week, from what my pre-pay meter tells me, so I would guess, not much more than a fiver, if running two machines for around 8 hrs a day, which works out at about a quid a day, for the two machines.

As guitar points out, the most power hungry item on the machine, is the reel drive motors, followed by the pay-out system (Solenoid / slide type being the most power hungry, compared to hoppers)

Edited by stanmarsh14, 12 September 2009 - 07:36 AM.

[impact]

Cof Cof like your pc ladies you have a 600w psu it dose not mean that it is drawing 600watts per hour the same with your fruit`s so if your barcrest has 768,512,256,128,64,32,16 bulbs ect it just states what the max power can be used at any given time so 500w sanken dose not mean it`s output is 500w it mite only be 320w per hour

[WelshPaul]

Some interesting points, I have a Bucks Bunny machine which is on 24/7 and is set at subdued attract mode. Yesterday i bought a meter which tells you how much power your usuing and the actual cost.

Basically you clamp it on the live feed coming from your meter to your fuse box and last night my total power consumption was 2.5p per hour now this is with the following running:

Fridge freezer
chest freezer
dvd player (in standby)
Digi box (in standby)
modem
router
pap2t
cordless phones
smoke alarms

and finally bucks bunny fruit machine!

When the wife goes to work tomorrow i will turn everything off and will test with just fruit machine connected to mains and get an actually cost as well as power consumption in both attract mode and play mode.

[kriss]

...remember some people pay by bill and some have electric card meters, ones with card meters will pay more...I know cause iv'e paid using both.

[stanmarsh14]

Some interesting points, I have a Bucks Bunny machine which is on 24/7 and is set at subdued attract mode. Yesterday i bought a meter which tells you how much power your usuing and the actual cost.

Basically you clamp it on the live feed coming from your meter to your fuse box and last night my total power consumption was 2.5p per hour now this is with the following running:

Fridge freezer
chest freezer
dvd player (in standby)
Digi box (in standby)
modem
router
pap2t
cordless phones
smoke alarms

and finally bucks bunny fruit machine!

When the wife goes to work tomorrow i will turn everything off and will test with just fruit machine connected to mains and get an actually cost as well as power consumption in both attract mode and play mode.

Be intresting to know what a typical machine actualy uses, kwh wise (Rather than actual cost, money wise to yourself) in a given time frame, so we can better guess what a typical machine uses.

Paul, if you could give us the actual KWH readings, for a pecific time-frame, it would help future users know roughaly what to expect from a typical machine.

TBH, on pre-pay myself, and I do not realy much of a change in the weekly amounts I have to put in each week, with moderate use.... probs no more than £3 on E.on's standard pre-pay tarrif, and would say around a fiver to be the absolute tops.

[WelshPaul]

Be intresting to know what a typical machine actualy uses, kwh wise (Rather than actual cost, money wise to yourself) in a given time frame, so we can better guess what a typical machine uses.

Paul, if you could give us the actual KWH readings, for a pecific time-frame, it would help future users know roughaly what to expect from a typical machine.

TBH, on pre-pay myself, and I do not realy much of a change in the weekly amounts I have to put in each week, with moderate use.... probs no more than £3 on E.on's standard pre-pay tarrif, and would say around a fiver to be the absolute tops.

I have three machines, 1x Bucks Bunny which uses eclipse based tech and 2x Barcrest MPU5 based tech so what i will do is i will connect and only connect the maygay (Bucks Bunny) machine to the mains in my home and i will leave it in full attract mode for five mins and will take a reading from the test meter and i will provide the KWh it uses. I will do the same for one of the barcrest machines.

At least we will 100% know how much KWh a machine actually uses!

I will also if i get time take a reading when the machine is being played, will be interesting.

[WelshPaul]

...remember some people pay by bill and some have electric card meters, ones with card meters will pay more...I know cause iv'e paid using both.

The test meter i use provides a KW reading, KWh reading and Cost (you have to programme it with what your electricity supplier charges you. I pay 12.04p per unit)

It also tells you your carbon footprint bla bla bla.

So if you pay more than that then it's going to cost you more per hour to run and if you pay less than that it will be cheaper.

As requested in another post i will provide an actual reading for KWh for a maygay machine and the same for a barcrest machine tomorrow.

Then people should be able to work out roughly what it's going to cost to run a machine on an hourly basis.

[WelshPaul]

Well ok im back with some maths, i could not do it yesterday as my little boy was off school ill.

Anyway a barcrest red gaming machine aka 'life's a beach' comes in with the following results:

When left on in attract mode it uses on average 0.161kw
When being played it peaked at 0.201kw (reels spinning)

It costs me 12.04p per unit so for me the total running cost for this machine per hour is 2p when in attract mode.

When i switched on both barcrest red gaming machines i got the following:

When both left on in attract mode it uses on average 0.341kw (max reading i got the minimum was 0.287kw)

again it costs me 12.04p per unit so for me the total running cost for both machines per hour is 4p when in attract mode.

The above is based on the max readings displayed on the meter.