Looking at upgrading one of my 3 door merchandise coolers, but the price range is pretty outrageous, so I’m trying to see what I could save in my electric bill to justify the costs.
My current cooler is:
115v
Ph 1
12 amp
New one:
115v
Ph 1
6.8 amp
Doing some quick googling, an amp of electricity costs $115/yr
If that’s true, we could save $600/yr
Still would take 6 years to offset the cost of upgrading.
Worth it?
It would really help to know your actual electrical cost per KWh.
Assuming 10¢/KWh (a resonable average), your current cooler, if it ran 8 hours/day would cost you 1.38KW * 8 * 365 = 4030 KWh * $.1/KWh = $403/year
The new unit would cost 6.8/12 as much or $228/year for a savings of $175
That’s a 3.4 year payback - not bad.
ETA: if the current cooler runs continuously, than the payback is less than 1 year. Note that the new unit may be MUCH more efficient, and not just consume less electricity. If it is better insulated, it might cycle less often, for even greater savings.
The current rating is the maximum current. It’s not an indication of continuous usage. You can’t compare the two based only on the specs given. Generally speaking, the higher the peak current the higher the continuous current under load, but that’s only a broad generality.
It is also entirely possible that the second cooler has a compressor that is half the size but has to run twice as long to achieve the same amount of cooling.
You need to look at the efficiency of the cooling system in terms of how well it converts kWs into BTUs as well as the rating of the insulation around the cooler to determine how much it will leak cold into its surroundings (yes, I know technically the heat flow is in the opposite direction, but you know what I mean).
I agree that just knowing the peak Amperage doesn’t help much in knowing actual electricity use over a year. See if the specs for the new model have an estimated energy use or something like that.
Also, It might be worth making a call to (or checking the website of) your electric utility, so see if they have any rebate programs for energy-efficient equipment upgrades (I don’t know much about commercial customers; there’s almost certainly something for some types of residential appliances, so it might be worth checking).
Make a much smaller, and more re-usable, investment in a Kill a Watt meter and learn how to use it(scroll down for some YouTube tutorials). Measure your actual usage on your current freezer. Your ambient temperatures, usage patterns, etc. all contribute to what your real power consumption is more than the specs. You may find that your current three-door has been well maintained and doesn’t leak much air and is only cycling on occasionally, or you may find that it’s running almost constantly and sucking juice like crazy. Either way, this is the way to make a rational decision. Measure your actual usage, it’s inexpensive and easy. Then do the math from reality-based measurements instead of theoretical minimums/maximums.
And then you’ve got a Kill a Watt meter and can use it for everything from your freezers to your tv(cause vampiric power draw is a real thing).
Enjoy,
Steven
I’d kill for 10¢ per Kw power. Around here, it’s around 16.5¢ out of the socket.
Where’s my Mr. Fusion home energy source?
You’re (generally) not paying for power (kW), but for energy (kWh). Small quibble, but you used both the wrong term and the wrong unit.
I noticed I made a rather huge error in my analysis.
The cost of the new unit is $3,600, not $600, so my payback period is too low by a factor of 6.
But, the only way to do this analysis accurately is to find out
A) The cost of your electricity, both in KWH and any demand charge and
B) The KWH/year consumed by both the old and new units.