The cost of fermenting

[Jitterbugdude]

I finally got around to plugging my kiln into a Kill-O-Watt meter. It said I use 5 kw per 24 hours. My kiln is about 4x4x3 feet. I use a warm mist humidifier and a 100 watt light bulb. It is a little drafty because this was a "temporary" kiln I built about 5 years ago and I still have it. It is made with 1 1/2 inch rigid foam board. My electric costs about 12 cents per kilowatt/hour.So, for me to ferment for 4 weeks costs me....12cents x 5KW x 28 days= $16.00 (approximate). Not too bad considering I do about 400 leaves at a time.

Randy B.

 

[BarG]

damn sam. it would be cheaper to send you all my best quality leaf and let you ferment. But maybe Send specs on your chamber so I can copy.And then I can be happy for an econmical price.

 

[DrBob]

5 kw per day is a little high. If you would seal up your kiln better you should cut that in half. Mine runs about 2kw/day at 50 degree f room temperatures. I do use a converted upright freezer and heat it with a crockpot.
Bob

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Bob, I realize my kiln is a little "drafty" but like I said I originally built this to be my experimental model until I built my permanent one. That was 5 years ago. I'm really planning to build my permanent (well sealed) one this coming spring... we shall see! I do think there is an optimal cubic space vs energy used.

Randy B

 

[DrBob]

I was going to build my own kiln from scratch, but carpentry aint my bag, the old upright freezer was already built for me. It is amazing how much tobacco I can cure off at one time. I did beef up the insulation with 1 1/2 foamboard. I have found that the longer the tobacco hangs the less time it takes to cure it off. I am going to put in a load that has been hanging for 16 months, It will probably be just fine in 10 - 12 days. A full load is about 7# so I do not have to cure all that often.
Now I cure as needed
bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Randy,
If you are building from scratch, the most energy efficient shape is a design with the lowest surface area per volume, since heat dissipation (energy loss) occurs only at the surface. The ideal is a sphere (not too useful). Next up would be a cube. So the closer the three dimensions are to one another, the lower the surface area per volume.

The advantage of this increases as the dimensions increase linearly--that is, while the volume increases by the cube of the kiln dimensions, the surface area increases only by the square of the dimensions. Since your goal is to maximize volume while minimizing the relative surface area, the larger the kiln the better.

Bob

 

[Jitterbugdude]

I did a quick calculation. My kiln is approx 32 cubic feet. A stand up freezer is about half that size (16 cubic feet). So DrBob's 2kw/day is pretty close to my 5 kw/day. Oh, and Deluxestogie.. thanks for reminding me of my Calculus day!