Brisbane Commercial Solar Design & Installation at Range Brewing
Information last updated 14/04/2022
More factories & warehouses are cutting their bills every day with solar panels!
Gerard, Mitch and Matt of Range Brewing know how to bring people through the doors with their great brews and tasty pizzas. However, making pizza, brewing beers and keeping them cold uses a lot of energy – 280kWh per day on average (this is 14 times the average household). They had opened one too many scary power bills and decided to engage us to complete an energy audit, which found four major areas.
1. Hot water tank
In consultation with Mitch, the head brewer, we found that there was a lot of unnecessary night time loads. For example, the 2000L hot water tank was only thermostat controlled and would reheat after a brew day during the evening and use upwards of 100kWh to reach temperature again. To help reduce this, we installed a timer on the hot water circuit so it will only heat during daylight hours. If Mitch needs the hot water first thing in the morning there is a timer override switch.
2. Refrigeration
Another night time load that we have been able to shift into daylight hours is the Glycol refrigerant system which was cycling on and off all night using a lot of energy. After talking with Mitch we found that this wasn’t necessary, because fermenters are not that temperature critical. To rectify this, we put a timer on the system so it wouldn’t start chilling again until 9am when the solar system is producing energy. It was a good solution and the fermenters now only lose 3-4 degrees overnight, which is acceptable.
3. Pizza Oven
The pizza oven is a necessary evil when it comes to energy consumption, however we have worked out that turning it on two hours before it is needed maximises energy efficiency. This is because the oven has reached the temperature set point whilst there in still solar production. The oven is then able to maintain temperature with less energy consumption in the evening.
4. Panel orientation
By using Solaredge, a DC optimised system, we were able to orientate the system in three different directions. A North facing system is great for producing a lot of power either side of midday however we needed power from early morning to late afternoon at a more consistent rate. This is why the panels on the upper roof are installed facing east and west on tilt legs and the panels on the lower roof are facing North.
We are excited to see what return on investment we can achieve with this system. One thing we know for sure is that it will be a minimum of 7 times better than the 4% term deposit available at the banks.
“Gardel Electrical have done a huge amount of work for us over the years. They are always on time, polite and efficient.”