What trends are happening in the Restaurant & Catering Industry?
Do you know how much money your fridge is costing you to run?
Is your fridge running up a huge power bill?
Buying cheap fridge is like buying a printer.
If you buy a cheap printer, the going to either need to own a bank or hope you win Lotto to pay for the print cartridges.
If you buy cheaper ink cartridges which save you a little. Then they're still going to suck money out of your bank account every month.
Do You even know what it's costing you to run your fridges?
If you have ever tried looking at different Fridge brands. Then you realise just how difficult it is to decipher these mystical numbers. Good luck on that.
Your Fridges run 24 hours a day, it's not like you turn off some of the time to save money.
The Govt want you to use more efficient refrigerators so you use less Green House gases & save the planet. All worthwhile concepts.
But your biggest reason for reducing your electricity bill You will save money.
Did you know for every $100 you reduce your bills by its the same as Earning a $100...
So to put it another way...
To get $100 dollars in interest from the bank you would need to Invest $4000 assuming you can get 2.5% interest...So it's a lot easier reducing your electricity cost. So make sure you get fridges which don't need access to nuclear power to run them.
So it's wise to make sure you're using an Energy-efficient Equipment because you will use less electricity.
So you will get the same level of performance to similar models with the same size or capacity. So the more energy efficient a model, the less energy it will use and the less it's costing you to run it.
If you were buying a fridge for your home you would see a sticker which has an energy rating. So you could compare them with other fridges.
Commercial fridges don't use this system. So it's a lot harder to compare commercial fridges running costs.
The Australian govt in conjunction with our friends across the ditch (New Zealand) has created an energy rating system MEPS. (Minimum Energy Performance Standard).
The MEPS comparison data shows the brands and models of commercial refrigerator submitted to MEPS. (It does not cover all brands, only those who submitted their fridges).
It's confusing to use and it does not have all the brands.
“Commercial or non-domestic refrigeration applications span a wide range of processes and applications in the food chain and consume approximately the same quantity of electricity as the combined total of all residential lighting and refrigeration in Australia and New Zealand. Commercial refrigeration is estimated to account for 4% of emissions from Australia’s energy sector and 6% of emissions in New Zealand. ”... //www.energyrating.gov.au/products/commercial-refrigeration
Electricity consumption of commercial refrigeration is largest in supermarkets, and process and cold storage.
Distribution of electricity consumption in non-domestic refrigeration, Australia, 2008. (Source: In From the Cold 2010-2020, E3 Committee, 2011)
//www.energyrating.gov.au/products/commercial-refrigeration
The MEPS for commercial refrigeration are set out as total energy consumption per total display area (TEC/TDA) in kWh/day/square metre for various unit types.
The measurement of total energy consumption are set out in the GEMS determination.
GEMS Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards (Refrigerated Display Cabinets) Determination20121.
I can highly recommend reading this if you suffer from insomnia. I'm sure it was written by Meerkat which has been studying Law.
The highlight of this wonderful edifice to literature.
“There are no GEMS labelling requirements for products covered by this Determination.”//www.energyrating.gov.au/products/commercial-refrigeration
Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards (Refrigerated Display Cabinets) Determination2012Thanks for sharing this useful or should I say useless information, Most helpful Not.
So how do know which Fridge will save us money on Electricity Costs
So we need to know the cost using electricity
We should compare all the fridges using the same data points, so we work out what each fridge costs to run.
We will be creating an easy to use Power Cost Tables. So you can compare the fridges & how much money you will save or extra you will have to pay.
So in our formula will use the unit kilowatt-hours, kWh.
So kilowatt-hours, kWh gives us amount of electrical energy used. We can work this out, by getting the equipment’ power and the length of time it's on.
(As we talking about refrigerators we can assume they will be running 24 hours a day.
So the formula shows the relationship between energy used, power and time:
Energy used (kilowatt-hour, kWh) = power (kilowatt, kW) x time (hour, h)
Most Equipment uses W watts so we need to convert them to kW kilowatt.
To convert from W to kW you must divide by 1000. For example, 3000W = 3000 ÷ 1000 = 2kW.v
The cost of using electricity
The more units used, the greater the cost. You can calculate the cost of the electricity using this formula:
Total cost = kilowatt-hour, kWh x cost per unit
The more units used, the greater the cost. To calculate the cost of the electricity use this equation:
Total Cost = number of kilowatt-hours x cost of one kilowatt-hour
//www.energyrating.gov.au/calculator uses cost kilowatt-hour Based on $0.29/kWh
If your looking for Energy Effiecnt Fridge then you should look at the Skope Activecore Refrigerators
Each component of the ActiveCore unit developed to optimise energy efficiency. So you will get a quicker rate of return and considerable financial savings over the life of your fridge.
The ActiveCore range is ultra-high efficiency refrigerated glass door food and beverage merchandisers. They're available in 1 or 2 door, top or bottom mounted options.
You will find these models provide market leading energy savings. They also have new features to deliver optimal performance, efficiency and reliability.
SKOPE's new ActiveCore" is a revolution in refrigeration technology.
BME ACTIVECORE uses 35% less energy than the previous B1200G-2 model. That's a saving more than $266 per year*
Stay tuned for the next post where will cover the running cost for fridges. So you will know the running Daily Costs, Weekly Costs, Monthly Costs & Yearly Costs. Then you can compare the fridges Saving & Costs..
If you would like to find out more about Restaurant Equipment for your food business then please give us a call on 1300 881119.