Equipment Needed

[Richard]

http://www.nbpower.com/html/en/resident ... rates.html
$0.0985 per kWh = $2.66 per gallon equivalent.
if 20lb is 4.5gals that'd be an equivalent cost of $11.96 for the electricity "fill".

So really it looks like they're basically on-par, give or take a couple of bucks, assuming propane is as cheap as Dean mentioned.

This looks relevant, but I didn't bother to read it or reconcile it with these numbers:
http://www.propane101.com/propanevselectricity.htm

[brew]

I recall last week Costco was trading tanks for 11.99 (specified as up to 20 lbs) - I get my 100 lbs'ers filled at Lakeshore fuels (delivered) for about the same $/lbs...

My burner is 65000 BTU - I can boil 20L of water in under 20 minutes. I've done 6 batches with my 100 lbs'er and a few corn boils and its nowhere near being empty. (approx. $70 to fill including tax). I have a little space in the garage so it works ok for me - not sure how I'll do in winter... I do have a good coat though...

I will eventually have an electric setup, but for me I'd want to be able to mash with a kettle (so I could do multi-temp mashing without infusion) - just not sure how to reconcile a thick mash (1.33G/lbs) with hot water heater element - even if it is low density - that's gotta scorch easy? (sorry - don't mean to hijack the thread)...

[JohnQ]

I believe what I read, haven't done the math but will some time when I'm REALLY bored, is that although the energy costs are close to equal as RB pointed out, the amount of energy that ends up in the wort is significantly higher in an electric setup than in a propane setup.  In the propane many btus are heating the air around you and not the pot above the flame.
When you do a proper build, like Kyle and I are planning where the hot water element is inside the wort, you almost get a 100% energy usage because the element is submerged in the wort.  You only start losing energy when the pot gets above the ambient temperature...can't do that with propane.
Just what I read, not really defending the position so much as reiterating someone else's math that I've not had the time or inclination to prove or disprove.
JQ

[Dean]

I've never had the inclination to figure it out before either ...but my employer does in fact pay me a substantial amount in exchange for the time it takes to do more than the simple math in this thread in order to advise when our heating plant should switch from oil to NG and at what rate to phase out ALL electrical HVAC appliances at a facility that spends 27 MILLION dollars a year on electricity (and we heat with gas). For the home user with a demand for a minute amount of energy by comparison I will agree that gas (NG or propane) is pretty much on par with electricity, but I stop short of saying electricity is substantially cheaper because it is not, it is my job to know that and I see the figures to back it up quite frequently. The main reason I wouldn't suggest switching a home from electricity to gas is the fact that the price fluctuates so much (we're set up to switch back and forth, homeowners are not) and is damn near impossible to predict what it'll cost 5 or 10 years down the road. Also, the initial cost to switch everything over far outweighs the savings for the average joe. Geothermal, wind, solar, etc is the same story but at least with those you have the satisfaction of not handing your money over to the big corporations.

Efficiency is a different story and John is 100% correct in saying the electric brewery is more efficient and the cheaper option (compared to the propane burners), but it's only cheaper partially because the availability of components for you and I to build a high efficiency gas unit isn't yet available. Careful about what you assume to be high efficiency when talking about electricity because as soon as you convert electricity to heat that all goes out the window (Heat is waste ...a by-product of sorts, and therefore the opposite of efficient from square one).

My point here was and still is - it is not substantially cheaper to use your kitchen stove rather than a turkey fryer to boil 5 gallons of wort.

My intent isn't to start a big debate, and I'm far from a beer making expert, but the certificate on my wall and my employer seem to think I know something about energy, efficiency, and mechanical engineering. Personally I think I've got them all fooled as I'm just another dumbass stumbling my way along ...but I digress

 

[JohnQ]

Thought of an easy way to work this out...
I use 2.5 hours of full power on my large burner to do one batch (when I start with cold water)
According to the specs, it draws 3400 watts.
3.4 kW x 2.5 hrs = 8.5 kWh
8.5 kWh x .0985 = $0.8375 per batch
So to be equal to electric, you'd need to be able to do 14 batches of beer from a single 20 lb bottle of propane, and that's not what I've heard is common usage for brewing, but I've never brewed with Propane, so it's only on hearsay.

from HBT search.
I get 4-5 AG batches and 7-8 extracts.

Now my induction stove will be more efficient than a "regular" stove, but a little math could easily work out whether you use more than $2-3 in electric.

JQ

[Richard]

I rather doubt this decision would save more money than any of us would piss away in an evening at a pub, even considered over a year or so.

Me, I'm getting a propane tank + turkey fryer soon, because I want to compare it to the results on the stove-top. More rigorous boil = higher hop utilisation, better hot-break, etc. I suspect the financial comparison is moot at our scale, but the practical comparison is worth checking out