# Keezer Power Usage?



## benno1973 (8/2/12)

As with any large expense I make on brewing, I need to provide a pretty good business case to my wife.

Nearly 3 years ago I bought a small barfridge sized kegerator, based on the fact that I was able to show that it used less power than my old clunker Kelvinator fridge.

Unfortunately I didn't have much foresight at the time, and I now regret not being able to have more than 2 taps on the go at once. As such, I'm now looking at upgrading to a freezer with a collar, which will hopefully be able to hold at least 4-6 kegs.

I can do the business case for the money side of things (buy a cheap second hand freezer and sell my kegerator), but I know she's going to ask about power consumption, and I need to be prepared. So....

Is there anyone out there who owns a power meter (like one of these) and a keezer who'd be willing to plug it in and measure the power consumption for a few days? All I'd need to know would be:

1. Kilowatts consumed
2. Number of hours
3. City (for some max/min temperature stats)
4. Freezer size and/or model

Obviously there's a whole bunch of variables that aren't being taken into account by this experiment (like ambient temperatures and so on), but if I can show that keezers aren't that power hungry, it'll be easier for me to sell this.

Anyway, here's hoping someone can help me out?


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## gwb (8/2/12)

Just out of interest I placed a similar meter on the fridge/freezer units I have here. It was during the recent Perth heat wave so some nice warm weather and the units had plenty of use... doors opening and closing, cold beer out, warm beer swapped in. Afraid I only have the $ value. Keg King kegerator was measured / predicted to cost just under $50 per year. A 300l fridge freezer was measered at ~ $150 per year and the BIG 600l Jenn Air Fridge / Freezer with ice maker and water chiller all plumbed in ( which gets a LOT of use ) was measured at ~$300 per year. Hope those numbers help your cause.

You might also check this thread out which talks about power usage of chest freezers later in the thread.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=62351


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## vortex (8/2/12)

Sounds like your wife is either quite technical or you're trying to bamboozle her with numbers  Can you simply tell her you're paying the running costs out of your contribution to the household (IE your wage)?

Don't forget power usage will be 2/10ths of **** all because of the STC-1000.


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## jbirbeck (8/2/12)

I can say I was running a small fridge with good seals etc and then added a 40 year old chest freezer and the power bill barely shifted, then swapped the fridge and the old 160 litre chesty for a 468 litre chesty (and added a small bar fridge style freezer as well) and the bill went down. don't have one of those power thingys but can say from my experience the chesty costs nothing to run at fridge temps.


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## beerdrinkingbob (8/2/12)

can't you look up the star rating info and times the kw's by the price you pay on the per kw on the bill?


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## Phoney (8/2/12)

beerdrinkingbob said:


> can't you look up the star rating info and times the kw's by the price you pay on the per kw on the bill?



That rating would be taken at the freezers normal operating temp of -18C. Keeping kegs at +5C will use shitloads less power.


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## benno1973 (8/2/12)

vortex said:


> Sounds like your wife is either quite technical or you're trying to bamboozle her with numbers  Can you simply tell her you're paying the running costs out of your contribution to the household (IE your wage)?
> 
> Don't forget power usage will be 2/10ths of **** all because of the STC-1000.



Ha! Yes, I could _try_ that, but she is the main wage earner in the house, so I think I'd be shooting myself in the foot. She is a manager so she likes to see pretty graphs. If I can skew those graphs in my favour... then new keezer!

I'm hoping that a freezer will have far better insulating capacity than my current KegKing fridge, so hopefully the running costs will be minimal.


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## Ross (8/2/12)

Just give her what she wants to see.....easy B)


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## benno1973 (8/2/12)

Ross said:


> Just give her what she wants to see.....easy B)



Falsify the figures!?  

Actually, as long as I bought her an electrical appliance at the same time, I could blame the power bill spike on that...


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## justsomeguy (8/2/12)

Kaiser,

I hooked a power meter up to my new system ages ago and got good results. Its based on a small box air-conditioner unit cooling a customer built by me coolroom holding 8 kegs. It worked out that the system would cost around $38 per year to run. Not quite the same as what you are after but give you an idea what you could be up for.

Or as someone else said, take the worst case scenario, and assume that the system will run at -18 and use the manufacturers specs. That way you can tell the Minister for War and Finance that the system is going to cost a whole lot LESS that what you have quoted.

Regards,
garyd


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## mikec (8/2/12)

It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is for permission. heh heh.

I'd say keep it simple. Freezer with temp controller uses bugger all power. End of justification.


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## Barndillo (8/2/12)

Go out and buy the chesty and a bunch of flowers! Stick the freezer somewhere inconspicuous and when she comes home butter her up with the flowers


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## adryargument (8/2/12)

Barndillo said:


> Go out and buy the chesty and a bunch of flowers! Stick the freezer somewhere inconspicuous and when she comes home butter her up with the flowers



Easier to place the flowers on top of the chesty in a nice vase; perfect camouflage.


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## the_new_darren (8/2/12)

All I know is my keezer is barely on when the lid is closed. I guestimate it runs for about an hour a day.

tnd


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## thebeemann (8/2/12)

Bunnings has got those power meters on special this week for $24.


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## krusty_oz (8/2/12)

No need to buy a power meter
Go to http://www.energyrating.gov.au/compare-products/
look up the freezer you want, the annual kWh usage will be listed (for using it as a freezer). Then look up an equivalent size fridge and see the usage - use that number as an estimate for keezer consumption. Actual keezer consumption should be lower since your not trying to freeze.


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## Batz (8/2/12)

Just buy one.



> Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.



Batz


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## amiddler (8/2/12)

Kaiser, I run a 216L Fisher chest freezer with a Fridgemate temp controller, possibly what you are after. I also have an energy meter. If you would like me to set it up in the morning and give you regular feed back over a period of time let me know. I measured my kitchen fridge opened and closed all day for a month and it came out at .40c a day. The keezer wouldn't use that much but $150 is a pittance compared with how good the beer tastes.

Drewy


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## jasonharley (8/2/12)

Go for a 276L chest or above. Reasonable power usage, better insulation and enough flexibility to run 2-4 kegs plus some lagering cubes. Trust me you will not regret it

5 eyes


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## vortex (8/2/12)

Batz said:


> Just buy one.
> 
> 
> > Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.



I love it Batz, so bloody true


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## benno1973 (8/2/12)

Thanks for all the replies. I've PM'd Drew to see if he'll measure his power consumption for me, but I do understand the 'just buy it' comments. It may come down to that anyway


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## tipsy (9/2/12)

Barndillo said:


> Go out and buy the chesty and a bunch of flowers! Stick the freezer somewhere inconspicuous and when she comes home butter her up with the flowers



Flowers only raise suspicion in my house.


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## Barndillo (9/2/12)

tipsy said:


> Flowers only raise suspicion in my house.



Valentines day is next week, it seems to be all give and no take from what I can see. Perfect excuse to buy the flowers and get yourself a present.

Then when she says "I thought you wern't into valentines" just indicate that your trying it out this year, then next year you can go back to business as usual :icon_cheers:


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## benno1973 (9/2/12)

Barndillo said:


> Then when she says "I thought you wern't into valentines" just indicate that your trying it out this year, then next year you can go back to business as usual :icon_cheers:



It's a dangerous thing to set that precedent! In a few years I'll be hearing "You never buy me flowers any more". No, best I just buy myself a freezer and say "I thought we were buying our own gifts this year?".


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## adryargument (9/2/12)

A freezer chest full of roses for valentines day?


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## Barndillo (9/2/12)

adryargument said:


> A freezer chest full of roses for valentines day?


That'd be a damn expensive freezer chest.


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## amiddler (17/2/12)

Results have been forwarded to Kaiser. 

For others wondering I had a consumption of .8Kw/h on the day I was filtering my beers so lid open and closed alot. For the next 5 days with the lid closed I averaged .45Kw/h per day. I only brew (open and close lid) about every fortnight so rough math at 19.9c Kw/h here in Gero, 65c a week or $35 a year on my system.

Drew


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## TasChris (17/2/12)

Kaiser Soze said:


> Ha! Yes, I could _try_ that, but she is the main wage earner in the house, so I think I'd be shooting myself in the foot. She is a manager so she likes to see pretty graphs. If I can skew those graphs in my favour... then new keezer!
> 
> I'm hoping that a freezer will have far better insulating capacity than my current KegKing fridge, so hopefully the running costs will be minimal.


 Bull shitting with graphs is easy, just a matter of tampering with the scale or use a pie chart which are basically meaningless and distract the eye with many coloured pieces of pie.
I have found it is much easier to get forgiveness than permission.

Cheers
Chris


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## benno1973 (17/2/12)

Thanks guys, and a big thanks to Drew for measuring his power consumption. As an aside, I measured the power consumption on my Keg King fridge and it averages 0.16 kWh/day, which means that it'd cost around $12 to run for the year.

My wife was fine with me buying the freezer in the end. I was able to convince her on 3 levels:

- I wouldn't need to run my second fridge to keep those other 2 kegs cold that are waiting to go on tap
- She can have the laundry cupboard back where I was storing kegs waiting to go on tap
- One tap can be dedicated to soda water for her new vodka/lime/soda passion.

I now have a 215L F&P freezer awaiting conversion...


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## DJR (17/2/12)

TasChris said:


> Bull shitting with graphs is easy, just a matter of tampering with the scale or use a pie chart which are basically meaningless and distract the eye with many coloured pieces of pie.
> I have found it is much easier to get forgiveness than permission.
> 
> Cheers
> Chris



Totally OT, but bull shit and pie graphs always makes me think of this - http://27bslash6.com/p2p2.html


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## stux (18/2/12)

Kaiser Soze said:


> - One tap can be dedicated to soda water for her new vodka/lime/soda passion.
> 
> I now have a 215L F&P freezer awaiting conversion...



Ahhh this is how I got my keg/tap expansion plans through


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