energy costs, 20bbl brewery

[zachj9292]

Here is what I have so far:

Energy Costs (First Year of Production)
Electrical: 10-15 KWH/BBL
Natural gas: 1.3 therms/BBL
Water usage: 3.0-7.0 BBL per BBL of beer sold

Electricity
$0.07 per kilowatt (local rate) x 15 = $1.05 to make a barrel
1000 bbls (made in the first year) x $1.05 = $1050 per year x 1.73(for three phase power) = 1816.50

Natural Gas
1.3 therms x 1000 barrels a year = 1300
1300 therms x $0.14 per therm = $182 per year



So what am I doing wrong with the natural gas? Does the electric bill look accurate? I have seen similiar but some others that are much higher.

[zachj9292]

anybody?????

[MatthewS]

The last brewery (20BBL system) I worked at had an electric bill of about $1500 per month from day one for about the first six months. Then it slowly increased to about $2000 per month. that was at about 3000BBL in the 3rd year.

Are you including your cold box and other peripheral gear that uses electricity?
Using a kilowatt per BBL hasn't seemed to work in the real world as far as I have seen, because your electricity usage is not linear in a brewery. You can brew 10,000 BBL and have the same cold box sucking the same energy as a 2000BBL brewery... although you can likely get a decent estimate.

Any other people seeing similar scenarios like me?

[ChesterBrew]

So what am I doing wrong with the natural gas? Does the electric bill look accurate? I have seen similiar but some others that are much higher.

Out of curiosity, where are you getting your initial numbers from? Here's what JVNW has on their web site for planning purposes:

http://jvnw.com/Industries/BeerTanks.html

UTILITIES
Electrical 20 - 35 kWh/bbl
Natural Gas 2 - 3.7 Thermos/bbl
Water 6 - 8 BBL's water/bbl beer produced
Refrigeration 10 - 20 BTU chiller capacity/bbl yearly capacity

[zachj9292]

Out of curiosity, where are you getting your initial numbers from? Here's what JVNW has on their web site for planning purposes:

http://jvnw.com/Industries/BeerTanks.html

I got that info off this forum a long time ago and just pasted it into my business plan. I could have sworn that they got it from jvnw but who knows.
I couldn't find the post though.


So here's the new numbers:

.07 per kw x 35 = 2.45 to make a barrel
1000 bbls (made in first year) x 2.45 = 2450 x 1.73 (for 3phase power) = 4238
as the annual electric bill for brewing.

3.7 therms x 1000 bbls =3700
3700 x .14 per therm = 518 annually for natural gas.

I have yet to figure out costs for the cold box and other energy requirements for your average industrial building (I don't have a location picked out, still planning). Any insights? I know that is a huge question but just putting bits and pieces together helps

thanks for the info