What is the estimate of power costs for a day or month for a 4x16-message center? I want to estimate based on an average per kw hour on 24/7 use.
What you put on it and what brightness it runs has a big impact, but here’s how we calculate it.
From the product spec the power consumption of a 4x16SS is 20Amps
So maximum full white screen on full bright is 120V * 20A = 2400 Watts.
The screen will have content on it, not full white, and we see that content is on average 60% of a white screen. During the daytime hours in full sun it will consume 0.6 * 2400W = 1440W.
At night, in total darkness if our auto-dimming sensor is used, the power will drop to about 10% of that, 0.1 * 1440W = 144W
Assuming there are 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness, the power consumption in a day would be:
(1440W * 12 hrs/day) + (144W * 12 hrs/day) = 19008 W*hrs/day, or we say 19 kwh per day
I pay $0.13 per kwh, so my cost would be $0.13 * 19kwh = $2.47 / day.