It is common for users to ask about the power consumption of a laser system before buying it. Many customers have a hard time estimating how much laser consumption will affect their electric bill. However, in practice the energy consumed by a laser is often less than that demanded by a fan or an air conditioning system.
The energy consumption of lasers varies considerably. There is a corresponding fluctuation range depending on the laser power (measured in Watts) and the time used daily. Here we show you the factors that influence the energy consumption of a laser, as well as the energy consumption in kilowatt hours based on a particular example.
1. Actual working time: it is the time that the laser takes to carry out an engraving or cutting process. In practice, about 20 to 50% of the working time is spent preparing, loading and unloading the laser.
2. Used laser power: the maximum laser power varies depending on the machine. Usually, engraving and cutting works use a partial percentage of the maximum laser power and the maximum capacity is only used for a sub-range of all jobs.
3. Peripheral equipment: the use of an exhaust system or a cooling unit (required for some lasers) also directly affects energy consumption.
Example:
● Laser equipment with 80W of laser power.
● Average effective working time of 2 hours per day.
● 50% of the working time uses the maximum laser power (80W) and the remaining 50% uses half of the laser power (40W).
The result is an energy consumption of approximately 50 kWh per month, equivalent to consuming 2 office PCs, a surprisingly low value.