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The Cost of a 'Smoke'

Q qnorthNear Traverse City, MI
Someone recently mentioned the cost of using a CS smoker. The subject was 'which smoker' to buy and in the recommendation was a statement that 'smoker X' would be cheaper to run than 'smoker y' because the element only uses 'xxx' watts.

I got to thinking about this and decided that since my smoker (an 055) has a 1200 watt element (the largest of the residential smokers I think) that I would do some checking on the cost of the average 'smoke'.

I have a gadget that will measure the instantaneous and continuous watts in use and also calculates the cost of a period of use.

Today I did some jerky using the GLH method (where the heck did he go?) and the stats are as follows:

Temp: 180
Time: 3 hrs
Pre-heat: No
Max watts: 1,236
Watts used: 966
# of door openings: 0
Cost: 9.4 cents


It used just less than a kilowatt and in my neighborhood, watts are going for .097/kwh so it works out. It amazed me.

This weekend I will be doing 3 large slabs of St Louis spares which will go for 5 or 6 hours.
Will report on that cook as well.
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FM Former Member
Nice report Qnorth. I use my AmeriQue all the time, and if I had to worry about the exact wattage and cost it would drive me to drink way more than I do. Like my Dad told me once a very long time ago, "son, if you have to worry about about the cost, then you can't afford it to start with". I know I enjoy my AmeriQue and the finished product so the cost really doesn't matter. This weekend I am doing a turkey breast and 6 slabs of lion backs.
P pagsMember
I'll be doing two turkey breasts tomorrow night. Brine is in the refrigerator cooling down, and the bird breasts are ready to hit the brine in short order. Smokin's Holiday Brine.

I figured the two breasts will take about 3 hrs. You mean it'll cost me less than $ .10 to smoke those puppies not counting the 3 or 4 oz of wood. Outrageous. Cool
Q qnorthNear Traverse City, MI
quote:
I'll be doing two turkey breasts tomorrow night. Brine is in the refrigerator cooling down, and the bird breasts are ready to hit the brine in short order. Smokin's Holiday Brine.


Oh no!! You've got your brine in the refrig and overnight too! That's really going to cost you. (as he heads to measure the cost of his refrigerator)
FM Former Member
quote:
Originally posted by Pags:
I'll be doing two turkey breasts tomorrow night. Brine is in the refrigerator cooling down, and the bird breasts are ready to hit the brine in short order. Smokin's Holiday Brine.

I figured the two breasts will take about 3 hrs. You mean it'll cost me less than $ .10 to smoke those puppies not counting the 3 or 4 oz of wood. Outrageous. Cool



Depends of your cost of electricity. Here's it's about 7.5 cents a KW hour. So it would be less.
Q qnorthNear Traverse City, MI
Last report: (since there's not much sense in it)

Temp: 225
Meat: 2 slabs ribs 4.7 lbs each
Time: 6:15
Pre-heat: No
Max watts: 1230
Watts used: 2.513 kwh
# door openings: 1 for about 10 mins
Cost: $.244

Gee.. 25 cents to cook a bunch of ribs. I guess Smokin' was right... Sell it.

That 25 cents would run my airplane for about... 13 seconds. Nope, can't afford it. Big Grin
FM Former Member
quote:
Originally posted by Qnorth:
Last report: (since there's not much sense in it)

Temp: 225
Meat: 2 slabs ribs 4.7 lbs each
Time: 6:15
Pre-heat: No
Max watts: 1230
Watts used: 2.513 kwh
# door openings: 1 for about 10 mins
Cost: $.244

Gee.. 25 cents to cook a bunch of ribs. I guess Smokin' was right... Sell it.

That 25 cents would run my airplane for about... 13 seconds. Nope, can't afford it. Big Grin


Here it would cost about 19 cents. But I can help with your financial woes dear lamb. You have got to imagine that spoken in a Russell Brandian voice for it not to be taken totally wrong. Replace your regular bulbs with fluorescent coils. Then you can run your smoker at least once a year.

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