DX verses ice builder

[lazy farmer]

To maximise our milk contract we are going to have to upgrade our tank over the next 18 months or so.
We currently have an ice builder system with the milk hitting the tank at around 4 degrees.
it works well. However I am beginning to think it is not the most cost effective system as the lowest electricity costs in our discussion group are on a farm with a DX system.
thoughts please
By the way our electricity bill will be rising 20% come may

 

[More to life]

To maximise our milk contract we are going to have to upgrade our tank over the next 18 months or so.
We currently have an ice builder system with the milk hitting the tank at around 4 degrees.
it works well. However I am beginning to think it is not the most cost effective system as the lowest electricity costs in our discussion group are on a farm with a DX system.
thoughts please
By the way our electricity bill will be rising 20% come may

Is that because of heat exchangers lowering water heating costs

 

[lazy farmer]

No they have only just installed said heat exchanger system

 

[pappuller]

To maximise our milk contract we are going to have to upgrade our tank over the next 18 months or so.
We currently have an ice builder system with the milk hitting the tank at around 4 degrees.
it works well. However I am beginning to think it is not the most cost effective system as the lowest electricity costs in our discussion group are on a farm with a DX system.
thoughts please
By the way our electricity bill will be rising 20% come may

Presume you will be required to go eodc ?
A majority of your cooling costs will be with milkings 1&2 i would imagine. Dx tanks nowadays are extremely efficient

 

[miniconnect]

To maximise our milk contract we are going to have to upgrade our tank over the next 18 months or so.
We currently have an ice builder system with the milk hitting the tank at around 4 degrees.
it works well. However I am beginning to think it is not the most cost effective system as the lowest electricity costs in our discussion group are on a farm with a DX system.
thoughts please
By the way our electricity bill will be rising 20% come may

had a similar brief discussion today, having to change tank to go EODC, and wondered about getting rid of ice builder.
opinion was, keep it as we're only single phase and with a big tank with small compressors would take a long time to cool in tank, if we'd 3 phase, it would cool in the tank much faster and possibly use less electricity.

 

[lazy farmer]

Presume you will be required to go eodc ?
A majority of your cooling costs will be with milkings 1&2 i would imagine. Dx tanks nowadays are extremely efficient

Not required but .5 bonus for whole months that you are Eodc means that we will be missing out on 5k a yr. plus what ever electric we could Possibly save.

 

[Barmyfarmer]

We upgraded our tank a few years ago, the sums were done on electricity usage and the existing ice builder was scrapped

 

[organicguy]

I believe an ice builder which can run on off peak and the ice used to cool the daytime milkings will be your cheapest way to cool your milk. A DX will use the least electricity.
Make sure your milk is cooled to the min with water.

 

[dinderleat]

The parlour chap we use said it’s pointless cooling water to then cool milk you might aswell cool the milk. We put a new dc tank in 18months ago the difference from our older dx tank is amazing once one milking is in it never gets above 5 even when you are milking. We are bottom fill so wether that makes any difference. We did make our plate cooler bigger last year which knocked another .5degree off.

 

[vantage]

5k, plus electricity savings 2k?. How much to change your tank? What about building space cost or perhaps a silo may negate this?
For me installing a new tank wasn’t as cheap as it may have been as I decided to knock down our existing tank room and store and replace, reason being it blocked the view from the house! The payback will be about 5 years as we had a grant for improved energy efficiency and although we installed 3 phase electric, the electric bill is down about £200 a month which I hadn’t budgeted for.

 

[lazy farmer]

5k, plus electricity savings 2k?. How much to change your tank? What about building space cost or perhaps a silo may negate this?
For me installing a new tank wasn’t as cheap as it may have been as I decided to knock down our existing tank room and store and replace, reason being it blocked the view from the house! The payback will be about 5 years as we had a grant for improved energy efficiency and although we installed 3 phase electric, the electric bill is down about £200 a month which I hadn’t budgeted for.

I recon around 25k for a silo.

 

[buffalo_soldier]

Over the years I've moved from ice builder to dx to dx with bottom fill. It's resulted in quicker cooling and less electric use at each switch. Compressor improvements are also a factor.
So make of that what you will.

Other thing when changing tanks, especially to a larger one, is to ask or be mindful about what the minimum volume of milk is required for effective cooling. I dropped below it last year and it was problematic.

 

[frederick]

I recon around 25k for a silo.

A silo doesn't always have the same area of evaporator plates as a conventional tank so is more likely to need an icebank.
A DX will be marginally more efficient but you can't choose when you use the electricity. As well as night rate you have your own sources to maximise.
You already have an ice builder so this should mean you can spec smaller compressors on your new tank.
I hear of huge compressors and they will obviously cool milk quickly but we just have two 3kw and an ice builder and 9000 litres a day still enters at 3degrees. They just run for longer.

 

[dinderleat]

Over the years I've moved from ice builder to dx to dx with bottom fill. It's resulted in quicker cooling and less electric use at each switch. Compressor improvements are also a factor.
So make of that what you will.

Other thing when changing tanks, especially to a larger one, is to ask or be mindful about what the minimum volume of milk is required for effective cooling. I dropped below it last year and it was problematic.

A buffer tank would be an ideal solution to that problem?

 

[Sid]

Presume you will be required to go eodc ?
A majority of your cooling costs will be with milkings 1&2 i would imagine. Dx tanks nowadays are extremely efficient

Costs will be the same for each milking.
You just have a lower temperatured larger volume to cool as more milkings go into the vat. IE you have the same amount of heat units to remove.

We have two tanks one dx one IB.

Am milk on cheap electricity into DX using chilled water from the IB and borehole through 2 stage plate cooler.
Pm milk on cheap electricity into IB through plate cooler.

Lots of variables to decide what suits best.
But utilising off peak, if you have it is key.

 

[dairydurham]

Costs will be the same for each milking.
You just have a lower temperatured larger volume to cool as more milkings go into the vat. IE you have the same amount of heat units to remove.

We have two tanks one dx one IB.

Am milk on cheap electricity into DX using chilled water from the IB and borehole through 2 stage plate cooler.
Pm milk on cheap electricity into IB through plate cooler.

Lots of variables to decide what suits best.
But utilising off peak, if you have it is key.

Off peak still cheaper but not big difference that there used to be ( On my last few contracts anyway )

 

[Cookie]

The growth of electric cars being charged at night will finish off peak electric tariffs eventually, something to consider anyway

 

[Real cool]

My view is rotary scroll compressors are the big improvement more efficient, Always put a plate cooler on a DX ,the bigger the better. To get the milk temperature down quicker is better for the quality of the milk.The argument for ice builders is produce ice overnight but have heat recovery best to heat that water for free. Also on hot summer days empty the hot water out of boilers to get cold water in to cool the gas.We had a chap who has 30000 litre silo but couldn’t get any ice into ice builder because of hot weather,so was told to drain boilers water was then cooling gas

 

[frederick]

We may loose night rate but new rates will turn up to help manage solar and wind peaks so you might get cheap electricity at 11am one day 3.30 the next and midnight on a windy night. Your ice builder may allow you to access that in the future.

 

[Bald Rick]

I recon around 25k for a silo.

You won't cool quick enough on DX alone on a silo unless it's spec'd with side plates too.

For any volume of milk & a silo, the cheapest method in terms of electricity is to use a glycol snap chiller ... only downside is chiller is not cheap but if you do the volume, it pays for itself quickly as milk is going in at between 4-6 deg so silo DX hardly kicks in except to condition milk (or to bring it down to the pre-set)