Fire Me Up!
Donation protected
J.A. Geiger Studio is looking to upgrade the kiln and electrical situation, can you help?
Currently my 396 square foot studio has a tiny baby kiln, and if you have been following the studio lately, you know that little baby has broken down & been fixed more than once because it has been working overtime.
Here it is with a fresh, hot load of stars.
The dilemma is that the current electrical load is already maxed out in the studio. So when the kiln is running, the soldering has to wait and sometimes I even need to turn the lights off in order to avoid tripping the breaker. This is not productive...
Without further ado, this is what I plan to do:
* Larger kiln - the Paragon CS19S SSP Kiln, $1500-1600
The Paragon CS19S SSP Kiln has an interior firing chamber of 19" wide by 19" deep by 6 1/2" high. This is more than twice the size of my baby kiln! It is a Clamshell Type with a Mercury Relay, which is a fancy switch that prevents the kiln from over-firing and burning down the studio - which would be a very bad thing! This also means that I will actually use less electricity because each firing will more than double (2.5 times!) my current production, so I won't need to fire as often.
* Upgrade electrical work - $800-1000
The sub-panel needs to be replaced (more circuits) and a dedicated outlet (240 Volt, 20 Amp.) wired for the new kiln. Separating the kiln from the rest of the electrical load will help prevent the breakers from tripping willy-nilly.
* Kiln furniture (this sounds more exotic than it is) - $200-300
The kiln shelves (multiple shelves for concurrent projects), stand-off posts, dams and fiber paper, and the other things that are necessary for firing safely and productively.
** and if there's any extra, Air Conditioning would be awesome :-), but I would also truly love to add some solar panels and replace the baseboard heat with something more energy efficient...
Currently my 396 square foot studio has a tiny baby kiln, and if you have been following the studio lately, you know that little baby has broken down & been fixed more than once because it has been working overtime.
Here it is with a fresh, hot load of stars.
The dilemma is that the current electrical load is already maxed out in the studio. So when the kiln is running, the soldering has to wait and sometimes I even need to turn the lights off in order to avoid tripping the breaker. This is not productive...
Without further ado, this is what I plan to do:
* Larger kiln - the Paragon CS19S SSP Kiln, $1500-1600
The Paragon CS19S SSP Kiln has an interior firing chamber of 19" wide by 19" deep by 6 1/2" high. This is more than twice the size of my baby kiln! It is a Clamshell Type with a Mercury Relay, which is a fancy switch that prevents the kiln from over-firing and burning down the studio - which would be a very bad thing! This also means that I will actually use less electricity because each firing will more than double (2.5 times!) my current production, so I won't need to fire as often.
* Upgrade electrical work - $800-1000
The sub-panel needs to be replaced (more circuits) and a dedicated outlet (240 Volt, 20 Amp.) wired for the new kiln. Separating the kiln from the rest of the electrical load will help prevent the breakers from tripping willy-nilly.
* Kiln furniture (this sounds more exotic than it is) - $200-300
The kiln shelves (multiple shelves for concurrent projects), stand-off posts, dams and fiber paper, and the other things that are necessary for firing safely and productively.
** and if there's any extra, Air Conditioning would be awesome :-), but I would also truly love to add some solar panels and replace the baseboard heat with something more energy efficient...
Organizer
Josephine A Geiger
Organizer
St. Paul, MN
