Is Electricity Cost An Issue Per Batch?

[Buffers brewery]

Where do you buy your ingredients? It cost me more than that just for hops.

Yes, that's just the cost of gas. A 5 gallon brew of pale costs me around 20 quid give or take. A 5 gallon brew of NEIPA comes in around 40 quid.....cos of the shedload of hops!

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Wow. That's around $1.30 NZD per unit.
I'm paying 22 cents per kWh.

So my last month's power bill ($293) would be $1300 at those rates.

Guess there's some advantages to having large hydro generation...

With pulse we're near 12 cents per kWh, but when you look at all the add ons and GST we're actually 30 cents per kWh and 10.7 dollars standing charge a month. Your adjusted cost per kWh I expect is higher.
Still a hell of a lot cheaper and would be less if we weren't subsidising that aluminium plant!
Just me the brewery and the dog so not using a lot of electricity at the moment.
Also we have solar hot water heating which even with the current weather the tanks at 58 celsius.

 

[sifty]

Yep including daily charges it's closer to 29c/unit. Purely on usage though my bill would go from $223 to $1310 a month at the equivalent of 69p/unit...

 

[RoomWithABrew]

@sifty
I think they have bumped the standing charges up as well so I think your bill would be even more.
But no need for me to look at changing my supplier anyway.

 

[lancon]

15th Feb.
14th was a Sunday.

Wasn't there something about the introduction of decimal taking place over the weekend to try to ease any problems? (If I reme.....)

 

[allotment_fox]

So from what I understand from reading this thread it cost in terms of electricity is somewhere between 5 & 10 kWh per brew of about 20-22 ltr.
I kind of want to buy a new Brewzilla v4 to make brewing for an oap a bit easier but still not ready to jump in yet from 3 pot brewing
My fixed term until July 2024 with EDF is for
Electricity day unit rate: 49.71p per kWh & night unit rate: 20.00p per kWh could well be burning the midnight oil or brewing on the milkman's shift which I have been doing with my Air still

 

[Crappyfish]

Wow. That's around $1.30 NZD per unit.
I'm paying 22 cents per kWh.

So my last month's power bill ($293) would be $1300 at those rates.

Guess there's some advantages to having large hydro generation...

And probably a half decent government

 

[hoppyscotty]

This is interesting. Beware the ‘C’ bomb towards the end of the video though…

 

[Chippy_Tea]

This is interesting.

Those numbers are crazy.

 

[gyurmaember]

Panic is over, energy prices just get capped, and we still get the £400 for the winter months. It's time to do some lagering.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Wow, that is stark.
Must work out the cost of a brew, current ambient here means I need some warming for the ferment.
With equipment etc home-brewing has always seemed an expensive hobby to make cheap beer. Now it's leaping up and Harry doesn't even mention the hike in raw material costs.

 

[hoppyscotty]

I don't think its that much at home-brew scale - depending what your home-brew scale is. I think it is still small numbers of pounds. I did a back of a *** packet calc when I first started reading this post and though electricity costs have gone up its still a relatively small number of pounds, maybe a tenner or something....bear in mind you're not using the full whack of power during a boil as they element is cutting in and out...I'd be surprised if the element is on for any more than say 75% of the boil or mash time (in my case with a PID control looking at how the element is turned on and off to maintain the boil) and you can always insulate your kettle that will reduce consumption alot. I'm more worried about the availability and cost of Hops.

 

[Agentgonzo]

.I'd be surprised if the element is on for any more than say 75% of the boil

It's only the advanced systems that have element controllers. For a lot of systems, the element is just on full whack for the boil.

It's one of the things I like about my grainfather - you can set the power of the boil. I normally set mine to somewhere around 70%.

 

[hoppyscotty]

Mine is PID controlled so flickers on and off (Pulse Width modulation I think) to maintain the boil. Once upto temp it is continually flickering on and off just to maintain whatever level of boil I want.

Ultimately the same amount of energy is being used during the boil so if you're running at 70% you're just maintaining a less aggressive boil than if you were running at a higher level, but having the ability to reduce power to control the level of boil you want and therefore only use as little energy as you require is useful. A PID controller will be using the same amount of electricity because of specific heat capacity of the wort. Seems my estimate of 75% is about right if not a little over then.

I have been meaning to make a neoprene jacket for my boil kettle too. That should enable even less energy usage.

My mash tun is well insulated so using very little energy to maintain mash temp apart from temp ramps.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I have been meaning to make a neoprene jacket for my boil kettle too. That should enable even less energy usage.

On a jacket. I went the easy way and bought one. Since I put it on, the mash required less power and the boil needed about 10-15% less power to maintain the same rolling boil.

Plus, if you ever brew outside (I do occasionally in sunny weather) it means the wind isn't a constant pain

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Well I reckon unless you put a meter on your system it's difficult to tell. But my PID controller during the mash with an insulated mash tun is running at about 5 to 10 % of power ( 3000W element) it runs at 100% when ramping between temps and takes about 90 seconds per degree of rise. Once it reaches boil I dial the power back to around 28%, this is not PID controlled. PID control of the boil is not a great method but very good for the mash.
We have solar hot water here and currently the tank is at 71 celsius which means it's out of the tap into the guten and water treat and pretty much ready to mash.
The patient approach to clearing beer at 10 degrees ambient is okay as no emergency beer needed.
But overall I reckon the electricity is a lot less than if I go into a pub here and buy a pint ( which is only 450ml here as they don't seem to understand weights and measures) at 6 or 7 pounds which is 12 or 14 dollars.
My bill is only 84 dollars for electricity a month so maybe it's the beer in pubs bill I should be worried about!

 

[allotment_fox]

nasty stuff this and nasty situation to be in there is no let up with prices of materials a massive intervention needed are people going to pay these prices for beer I think not in the quotatives required to make a living in the pub and brewing industry GET UM OUT

 

[starseeker]

Wow, 6 to seven pounds for 450ml of beer ,brewing your own must be way, way cheaper .

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Wow, 6 to seven pounds for 450ml of beer ,brewing your own must be way, way cheaper .

Certainly is, costs about a fiver for a 500ml bottle in supermarket of beer.
Kronebacher lager I think is cheapest beer and it's an import.
But home-brewing can be an expensive way to make cheap beer!

 

[The Baron]

It's my hobby and pleasure so I do not bother with the true cost as for the time I mash and boil it is no big issue
Ps I do No Chill to save on water though, it also suits my method too