Cost benefit of gas vs electric in NYC
I'm trying to open a restaurant in NYC and vented locations are hard to come by but when you do find them they are significantly more expensive than non-vented locations. I have found 2 locations, one vented and one non-vented pretty close to each other, and the same size (700sqft), but the vented location is $4500 and the non-vented is $3500. Now, if I go all electric, I can take the cheaper location, but the question I have for you experienced bakers is, would I balance out the monthly rent difference by my utility bill? Is electric much more expensive than gas, could my bill be $1000+/month?
To give you a better idea of what I'm doing, I would be making something similar to pizza in that its a flatbread (but its a sandwich item) and the restaurant would be open about 20 hours a day. So my oven would be on for 20 hours and I bake at high temperatures (550F-650F). I know this really depends on my equipment, but if anyone has a pizzeria in NY you can probably give me a rough estimate. Any advice to help me figure this out is greatly appreciated! I called Con Edison and they couldn't help me...
Behind of any machine thereis a plaque ,silver the most times,you can write down what it says,
then call an electrician and give himthe details.
It will take 1 minute for him to tell you exactly how much you gonna spend.
Good luck with your project!
Con Ed should at least be able to give you a KWH price for electricity if you have an address and if they also provide the gas service (I don't know) then they should be able to tell you the price per therm also.
Since I don't know what the prices are, I'll give you an example based on this site comparing 2011 and 2012 in NYC.
I'll compare the electric and gas versions of similar size deck ovens so you can see how they differ in cost.
Zesto Model 215SS Gas - 102,000BTU
Zesto Model 1503 Electric - 12kW
According to the link above during Sept 2012, NY area customers were paying $1.124 per therm (gas) and $.201 per KWH (electricity).
Since 1 therm = 100,000BTU the gas model uses approximately (102,000/100,000) x $1.124 = $1.15 per hour to operate
For the electric oven it uses about 12kW per hour and it costs $.201 per KWH so you would pay 12 x $.201 = $2.41 per hour to operate.
Based on how much you will be running your ovens, you can get an approximate usage figure for each.
-Mark
Wow! Thanks SO much Mark, you've been a great help! I'll find out all the info and do the calculations now that I know how :)