How much energy do you use per brew?

SpillsMostOfIt · Post by **SpillsMostOfIt** » Saturday Feb 17, 2007 9:24 am

Ignoring the fact that this is marketing dross and relates to our favourite mega-brewer, I found this -> http://www.rockwellautomation.com.au/ap ... s_a-brewin

to be quite interesting.

I then got to thinking about my kilowatt-hour per hectolitre rating.

For a (nominal) 20 litre (0.2 hl) batch:

Wort Boil:
2 hrs at 2400Watts = 4.8kw-hr

Ferment Cool:
One week (24x7) at 80Watts @ 20% duty cycle = 2.688kw-hr

Wash Water Heat (Assume same as Wort Boil):
4.8kw-hr

Transport (ingredient collection), web-surfing (recipe formulation and *cough* research) Assume same as Ferment Cool:
2.688kw-hr.

Total (for 0.2hl): 14.976kw-hr
Total (per hectolitre): 74.88kw-hr

Ouch.

ADHD Curmudgeon · Post by **ADHD Curmudgeon** » Monday Apr 09, 2007 9:54 pm

So approx, what is the cost of your power for 1 brew?
I've always wondered how many $ of electricity I use per brew, so you may be able to give me an approximate figure from your experience (if you feel so inclined).

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Monday Apr 09, 2007 10:33 pm

12-15c per kilowatt-hour is a reasonable figure to work from. at those figures you're looking at $1.80 - $2.25 per 0.2 hectolitre (20 litres).

chris. · Post by **chris.** » Tuesday Apr 10, 2007 12:39 pm

Hmm..... I wonder if these changes will result in a cheaper product?

blandy · Post by **blandy** » Tuesday Apr 10, 2007 5:57 pm

What's the deal with this hectolitre thing? can't we restrict ourselves to measures of volume that most chemical engineering students are aware of?

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Tuesday Apr 10, 2007 10:26 pm

1 hectolitre=100 litres

SpillsMostOfIt · Wednesday Apr 11, 2007 8:15 am

blandy wrote:What's the deal with this hectolitre thing? can't we restrict ourselves to measures of volume that most chemical engineering students are aware of?

That would be:

'pint'
'pot'
'bucket'.

I for one welcome our new unit-ignorant overlords.

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Wednesday Apr 11, 2007 10:28 am

SpillsMostOfIt · Wednesday Apr 11, 2007 12:52 pm

One hectolitre equals 1/25,000 Olympic swimming pools. I'm not sure how many Libraries of Congress or Volkswagens that is...

Emo · Post by **Emo** » Wednesday Apr 11, 2007 1:08 pm

You have too much time on your hands.

Brew more beer.

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Wednesday Apr 11, 2007 1:27 pm

Now don't get all emo on us...

I need a humour transplant.

blandy · Post by **blandy** » Wednesday Apr 11, 2007 2:05 pm

KEG wrote:1 hectolitre=100 litres

Yeah, i guessed that, but who actually uses this unit on a day to day basis?

Spills, I'm very familiar with those units of volume.

SpillsMostOfIt · Wednesday Apr 11, 2007 2:17 pm

blandy wrote:
KEG wrote:1 hectolitre=100 litres
Yeah, i guessed that, but who actually uses this unit on a day to day basis?

Spills, I'm very familiar with those units of volume.

From what reading I can fit in these days, it seems to be a fairly common unit of measurement for small-medium sized breweries, particularly in Europe. I think it is bogus, myself, as you could just as easily use litres, but it is probably similar-ish to some old measurement that has been deprecated in favour of metric and allows all the old-timers to do a quick and dirty conversion.

Kind of like the way you do with ... well ... nothing at all now that I think about it...