Budget for natural gas?

[jsab]

Hi,

looking to find out information on how much I should budget for in my business plan for natural gas usage in a Diedrich IR5?

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[AndyP]

Our 5 Kilo Ambex uses VERY little propane. Like so little I'm not even factoring into costs at this point because the guage on the tank barely moves over the course of a few months. I would guess the IR5, roasting a few days per week, would use a really small amount.

 

[peterjschmidt]

Not sure if this helps, but along the lines of what Andy posted, my Ambex 2K can roast 25# with 1# of propane.

 

[JohnD18]

The IR-5 is listed as using 20,880 BTU/hr on normal roasts and 50,000 BTU/hr when operating at full flame, so use 40,000 btu/hr to get a safe number. Then plug that into the equation: Cost to Operate = (hours x BTUs) / (100,000 x Price per Therm). You just need to add your expected hours to be roasting and figure out what the price per therm is from your utility company (be sure to find the commercial price as it is different than residential). Its low, but they also charge ~$50 just for the service, and it increases as you use more, or your demand goes up. So, even though your physical usage is low, your bill will be much higher.

So, lets say you roast for 10 hours with an average BTU/hr of 40K and a PPT at .90¢ (I think mine was .85¢ or something around there):

CTO = (10 x 40,000) / (100,000 X .90)
CTO = 400,000 / 90,000
CTO = $4.44

This does not include the other charges though. Ask your utilities about the PPT and what the commercial rates are for supply as that is what really eats up the bill.

 

[expat]

On our 10k Ozturk I'm getting 90 or so roasts out of a 34kg tank of propane. I pay 89 euro/tank. So 1 euro for 10 kg or 10 cents per kg. Like AndyP said, its almost not worth figuring in to the cost.