Canning Costs and Electrical Efficiency

[frustratedearthmother]

I feel ya, Terri. I'm on the Texas Gulf coast and right now we're paying about $250 a month. When my son and his wife were living in our garage apt last summer - we averaged $350 for a couple months with one month being over $400. Love my son - glad he moved!

 

[terri9630]

Ouch.

Do you have a gas/oil bill on top of that?

Propane. We haven't used our furnace in years but the hot water heater and stove both use it.

 

[Denim Deb]

Remember too, the electric costs are different in different parts of the country. We have budget billing, and pay about $250/month. And, w/the exception of the wood stove, our house is all electric. But I know people who pay close to that every month and then have gas, oil or whatever to pay for on top of that.

 

[Emerald]

Hubby used to complain about our heating and electric bills. they seem to reverse each season.. high natural gas in the winter and high electric in the summer.
Then he started talking to the people at his work and I was chatting online.
our highest gas bill in winter is about $118. we use gas for heat/cooking/water heater. normal winter electric about $45.
our highest electric bill this summer (and ever) was $106. the normal gas bill about $36 a bit higher during canning season.. maybe $46 at the most.
After hearing what the other folks are paying we feel that we have no reason to complain.
We have our own septic and well. so only pay electric to get the water up.

 

[me&thegals]

Emerald--that reminds me! We were doing nonstop watering at our house for 6 weeks straight this summer, so a lot of electric for the well pump. And 2 steady weeks of watering the sweetcorn patch on the farm, another larger electric bill! Made me pretty grouchy when people complained about the price of our sweetcorn (only 2 people, thank goodness) at market.

 

[Emerald]

Emerald--that reminds me! We were doing nonstop watering at our house for 6 weeks straight this summer, so a lot of electric for the well pump. And 2 steady weeks of watering the sweetcorn patch on the farm, another larger electric bill! Made me pretty grouchy when people complained about the price of our sweetcorn (only 2 people, thank goodness) at market.

I know I heard it while at the farm stand near me picking up a few things..I guess most people don't put two and two together when it comes to bad season=high costs.. I did put about 4 nice packs of sweet corn in the freezer for special eating this winter but the cost of it was high.. I don't blame the farmer(friends parents that I went to school with) I gladly pay their prices. the drought and heat this year was something else..
We even had the air on a lot! but I mulched deep and only had a small garden so watering each day but rotating around the three/four small beds wasn't so bad.. but me I forgot our small blueberries and some of the hops and worry that they may not make it thru the winter this year..
Some of the plants lost their leaves and put some new on but that does tax them so.

Hubby told me that even if the gas gets higher in price he would rather have my home canned sauce and other veggie and meats than have to buy them. Same with the freezer. so far we haven't lost anything due to power outage.. good thing we are friends with the neighbors(well he is a distant cousin) he has a big diesel generator and once a day he pulls it over and runs the freezer and fridge for a couple hours. He won't even let us pay for the gas.. but he does take the eggs and cooking and coffee.. I have all the old fashioned perk brewers and even french presses so I can have my coffee..

I would have to say that depending on where you live and what you cook with does make a huge difference on the "cost/price" of home canning.

 

[~gd]

And if you use a steam canner, those electrical costs go down even further. We freeze a lot but just because we like the flavor so much better and the nutrition.

I understand the flavor argument.

However, the nutrition argument is mainly unsubstantiated. Everyone's an expert when it comes to food, but there aren't many citations of credible sources. (I'm not picking on anyone in particular.) The idea that cooking your food wrecks it is hard to believe because of the last several thousand years of history. Or maybe I'm totally wrong and you have a credible and convincing source to argue for your perspective....

I don't want to start a religious conflict over nutritional value of pressure-canned food. The point of this thread is that canning is much more energy efficient than freezing.

That depends on where you live! Canning energy is fairly fixed, but when I lived in what I call the Great Frozen North we never had one of those things called freezers. butcher animals and take them to the freezer plant to have them flash frozen, You could rent a locker [25 cubic feet, size determines price] for $150/year or $20/month. Since the roads were often closed for periods [Snow] many kept a supply at home in a simple box on their back pourch. Our old farm had an ice house [cut ice blocks in the winter, insulated house would still be frozen thru the next winter. Keep in mind that home canned is often cooked 3 times. Once before jarred, then processed, often in the final meal prep... Now that has no "credible and convincing source" too bad ~gd