OP
OP
Really? Electric rates are that high there? What are you paying and why so much? They are not bad by us and you're not too far away.
A yooper sauna should be wood
Poll-->Best Brewery Power Source
- Thread starter lschiavo
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
Really? Electric rates are that high there? What are you paying and why so much? They are not bad by us and you're not too far away.
A yooper sauna should be wood
Lowest I've seen here in 14 years is $0.22/kWh, not even sure the highest, but our average electric bill is ~$400/mo. Friends in the area report bills averaging around $300/mo (that's w/out electric breweries and saunas...)
As to the "why" part: it has to do with politics, logistics, and failed promises. There's a lot to it, and I'm tired of hearing more promises as they close more power plants and fire more people. I've heard rumors of some Canadian company buying the rights to our portion of the grid that has some grand plans.
No arguments here. This Yooper wanted to be able to time and program his saunas according to his schedule.A yooper sauna should be wood
This thing rivals most fancy hotel saunas.
Crazyeyes
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2016
- Messages
- 56
- Reaction score
- 20
@ 8.34 cents per KWh in the Pacific Northwest, its electric all the way, I like my brewery powered by coal dust and baby salmon! Electric is easy to control and precise, I just finished electrifying my HLT with a 5500w herms setup and can't wait to get my boil kettle off the gas, and sucking down 11,000 watts of precisely controlled electricity.
My service is tiered but if I take my total bill and divide by kWh, I'm paying average of 14 cents.
Heat 8 gallons of strike from 60-160 on 5500watts takes about 20 minutes (1/3rd of an hour) 1.8kW x .14 is 25 cents.
1 hour mash. The element comes on for about 3 seconds every 5 minutes so that's about 1-2 minutes of use. Not even worth counting.
Ramp 150-212 to boil, 13 minutes of full power. 1.19 x .14 = 17 cents
Boil for 60 minutes at 65% output. 5500 x .65 = 3575 wH 3.57 x .14 = 50 Cents.
92 Cents per brew for 6.5 kWh of usage.
All direct fire gas flames are running maybe 40% efficiency if you're lucky. The best price I can get here for a 20 pound propane fill is $16. If you can manage 40% efficiency into the kettle (you won't), you'd need 55,000 btu of gas to do the same work I outlined above. That's about 2.6 pounds of LP that costs me $2.08 not including the gasoline to go get the fill.
Usage costs aside, I would still vote electric even if it were twice as expensive as the next cheaper option. Zero emissions, quiet, safer, more controllable via automation.
Heat 8 gallons of strike from 60-160 on 5500watts takes about 20 minutes (1/3rd of an hour) 1.8kW x .14 is 25 cents.
1 hour mash. The element comes on for about 3 seconds every 5 minutes so that's about 1-2 minutes of use. Not even worth counting.
Ramp 150-212 to boil, 13 minutes of full power. 1.19 x .14 = 17 cents
Boil for 60 minutes at 65% output. 5500 x .65 = 3575 wH 3.57 x .14 = 50 Cents.
92 Cents per brew for 6.5 kWh of usage.
All direct fire gas flames are running maybe 40% efficiency if you're lucky. The best price I can get here for a 20 pound propane fill is $16. If you can manage 40% efficiency into the kettle (you won't), you'd need 55,000 btu of gas to do the same work I outlined above. That's about 2.6 pounds of LP that costs me $2.08 not including the gasoline to go get the fill.
Usage costs aside, I would still vote electric even if it were twice as expensive as the next cheaper option. Zero emissions, quiet, safer, more controllable via automation.
Electric is great to a certain size, then steam is much better!
I brew indoors and the gas burner set off the CO monitor every time I brewed. So I went to a 3500 watt Avantco induction range/cooktop. I have a 2kw photo-voltaic array on my roof that produces about 1/3 of our electricity.
