How much does electricity cost??

I had a guy at work ask me how much it costs to brew beer using electricity. I replied that I have no idea, but it's GOT to be better than th ecost of propane I used to use!

It got me thinking about relative cost and I imagine there has to be a mathematical way to estimate how much you would spend in electricity for a batch, if you could only provide a few assumptions:

4500W element running full bore

1 hour mash sparge water heating
1.5 hour boil length

Price per Wh = ??

I tells you on your power bill? There are cost brackets based on usage amounts and time of day and demand.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/electrical-costs-normal-brew-day-465981/

According to the US Energy Information Administration in Jan 2014 the average residential cost per kWh was $0.1165.
I am currently paying $0.15854 in NH (0.06624 services plus 0.0923 energy).

All I know is my electric bill hasn't really gone up since starting my electric brewing. My propane costs have gone way way down.

Sorry, I know I can find out what my own cost is per watt, but I wondered if there was anything missing I forgot, or if my time calculations were way off. I've never really timed how long it takes to heat my water.

If you brew in your basement the cost of the electricity is very minimal in the winter because a lot of the escaping heat of brewing gets transferred into your home. On the flip side this is a very bad thing when it's hot and you are running A/C.

Homercidal said:

Sorry, I know I can find out what my own cost is per watt, but I wondered if there was anything missing I forgot, or if my time calculations were way off. I've never really timed how long it takes to heat my water.

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Kal has a good breakdown estimate here in his FAQ

michaeltrego said:

Kal has a good breakdown estimate here in his FAQ

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Awesome! Exactly what I was looking for!

If you run a 1000 watt appliance for an hour, you use 1 kilowatt hour. See wikipedia. Your element is 4.5kW. If you run it for an hour, it consumes 4.5kWh. You run it for 2.5hrs and it uses 7kWh. If you pay 12 cents per kWh, you've run up your bill by $0.84.

It's not that propane (and propane accessories) are so expensive, They are just not as efficient at transferring heat as immersion electric elements. A gallon of propane has the same energy as 26.7 KWH, so if electricity is 12 cents per KWh a gallon of propane should cost about $3.20, which sounds about right.

Electric elements surrounded by water are ~100% efficient. A propane burner is maybe 50%?

"Business, business, numbers, numbers..."

The fact that I never run out of electrons in the middle of a brew...priceless.

KegWrangler said:

It's not that propane (and propane accessories) are so expensive, They are just not as efficient at transferring heat as immersion electric elements. A gallon of propane has the same energy as 26.7 KWH, so if electricity is 12 cents per KWh a gallon of propane should cost about $3.20, which sounds about right.

Electric elements surrounded by water are ~100% efficient. A propane burner is maybe 50%?

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Exactly. Look at those blue flames coming out from under my kettle, aint they purdy?! Yes, but that's just heat lost to the atmosphere. It takes far less BTU's to transfer heat directly to the wort through a coil than to heat it from the bottom only. That said there's nothing quite like the roar of an open flame boil! I only pay about $3.50 in propane for every 11 gallon full boil all grain batch I do and I even heat strike/sparge water on that and a full 90 min boil. Cannot complain.

Jayhem said:

I only pay about $3.50 in propane for every 11 gallon full boil all grain batch I do and I even heat strike/sparge water on that and a full 90 min boil.

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That's extremely low. How did you calculate the $3.50 amount?

Kal

I printed that out and left it on his desk and he came in to see me this morning with a glint in his eye. I think he will be trying to figure out how and where to build an electric system down the road. I did make the point about losing heat to the atmosphere.

I *think* I get about 3 brews per propane tank, which cost like $20 to refill, so my propane cost is roughly 6-7 per batch. Those are 5 gallon batches and I'm estimating. It's hard for me to know for sure because I'm always borrowing tanks from the camper and grill and swapping them around depending on how much is left in which tank.

Based on this thread and since I am a recent convert, I thought I would figure out my costs for brewing 11 gal batches. I estimate I was paying around $6 per batch in propane and now, around 45 cents in electricity.

On average, I get 10 batches a year so... a year's worth of electric brewing operating costs is cheaper than 1 batch on propane!

:rockin:

hio3791 said:

Based on this thread and since I am a recent convert, I thought I would figure out my costs for brewing 11 gal batches. I estimate I was paying around $6 per batch in propane and now, around 45 cents in electricity.

On average, I get 10 batches a year so... a year's worth of electric brewing operating costs is cheaper than 1 batch on propane!

:rockin:

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True, but let's be realistic here. I spent about $600 on my control panel. I'm not going to even calculate how many brews I would have to do in order to recoup my money over my old propane setup. Electric brewing over propane is worth it to me for quite a few reasons other than cost of propane.

But it's a good tack to take if one is trying to convince their significant other to let them spend money on an electric rig.

Very true.

Electric may cost less to operate in most locations, but if the primary goal is cost savings, a simple ~$200 setup with a propane burner, and a picnic cooler for mashing is always going to be a lot cheaper.

If you start to add complexity to a gas setup by adding a control panel with gas valve control, and so on, then it starts to make sense to look at electric instead.

Look at electric too if any of the following are important:


- Easier precise control of temperature.
- Safe for indoor brewing: No poisonous gases, no emissions.
- Absolutely silent
- Much more efficient use of energy (ties in to cost)
- Ease of use (No tanks to refill)

Cheaper is just one of the things that falls out at the end of the list of electric vs gas. It's usually not the primary reason people go electric (IMHO).

Kal

You could cut corners and spend only a little bit on an electric system. It wouldn't be safe and it might not be all that controlled, but if you wanted to make a move from propane to electric, it can be done.

Personally, I wanted to go electric not just to save money, but to build something and make brewing a little more controlled and convenient.

In his case, this guy at work is considering some remodeling and if the stars align he may be able to one day talk his wife into letting him build an electric system in the laundry room for winter brewing. An estimated cost savings was probably just one thing he could use to make his case.

Jayhem said:

If you brew in your basement the cost of the electricity is very minimal in the winter because a lot of the escaping heat of brewing gets transferred into your home. On the flip side this is a very bad thing when it's hot and you are running A/C.

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Wouldn't you still want a large hood if brewing in your basement to suck out the hot heat and steam?

Paul Aris is correct. That's what too much steam for the house. For example, I boil off 1.9 gallons/hr.

It's also not 100% clean either.

You want to properly evacuate the steam no matter what time of year it is.

Kal