How can you save energy in your ice cream parlor?

If you have fulfilled your dream of owning your own ice cream parlor, you probably now face different challenges than before you started your business. Because now you have to invest your profits wisely and regularly optimize your business.

With rising energy prices, for example, you should consider how best to conserve energy in your ice cream parlor so you can save money without having to make major cuts.

How can you save energy in your ice cream parlor?
To save energy in an ice cream parlor, you should use high-quality and efficient machines and equipment of the right size, replace wearing parts in good time, and regularly check seals and closures for proper functioning .

Running an ice cream parlor requires not only a certain know-how regarding ice cream production, but also forward thinking and, above all, commercial understanding. This means that you should also regularly review your operational calculations and reassess the planning of your expenses every month.

That way, you can react quickly enough to changing situations and won't be surprised by horrendous costs at the end of the month. After all, you want to remain competitive even in difficult economic times and not jeopardize your company as soon as things get a little more difficult.

5 efficient measures to save energy in the ice cream parlor

1. use high quality ice cream machines

A high-quality ice machine, for example from the market leader Carpigiani, has a high-quality construction and more efficient components than inferior cheap products. This means, for example, that high-performance heat exchangers and insulation ensure that less energy is lost and you can produce energy-saving ice.

An intelligent control system also ensures that the unit stops cooling or heating when the temperature is reached, so that no energy is wasted unnecessarily.

2. replace old ice machines with modern ones

Advanced technology enables improved energy efficiency

Modern and newly developed ice machines are usually much more efficient than older models. So it makes sense to replace older models with new devices to save energy.

Energy and water consumption are now more strongly included in development

Technology is constantly evolving, and the design of models made twenty years ago did not take into account the consumption of water or electricity as much as they do today. Electricity and water were much cheaper back then, and environmental awareness and the focus on sustainability were also less present.

Today it is different and machines that are equipped with the latest standard of technology generally have lower consumption. It is therefore very worthwhile to invest in newly developed machines and to replace older machines with modern ones, even if this initially means higher initial costs.

3. pay attention to the right machine size for ice production

The machine size also plays a major role when it comes to saving energy in the ice cream parlor.
A particularly important point here is that the machine size should be adapted to the use and the amount of ice cream produced.

Too big or too small? - That is the question here!

A machine that is too small means that the machine must be operated more often than if the cylinder size is adjusted to the amount of ice. In turn, a machine that is too large means that the area of the cylinder is used inefficiently, wasting energy.

Consequently, if the size is inappropriate, more electricity and water will be consumed than would be necessary. It is not uncommon for the amount of ice cream needed to change over the years and for more or less to be produced than when the ice cream parlor was founded.
Or you may have learned by now to simply calculate the amount of ice cream better.

This means that your ice cream machines may now no longer be the right sizes and it's time to replace them. So make sure your machines are neither too big nor too small and check regularly if the amount of ice cream produced has changed in the long run.

4. replace wearing parts at an early stage

With regular use of machines and equipment in the production of ice cream, it is unavoidable that parts and components of the machines wear out.

Therefore, maintenance and regular inspection of all working equipment is immensely important in ice cream production.

Proper and professional functioning of your machines means less energy and time spent during use.

For efficient cold transfer (= lower energy consumption), make sure that all blades and scrapers are sharp and replace them in good time if they show signs of wear.

5. regularly check the gaskets and seals of all machines

For the most economical power consumption, you should also regularly check all seals and closures for proper functioning. If necessary, you should immediately replace old seals with new ones, because every leak is also a cold bridge through which you lose energy.

Soft ice cream machines and other appliances - avoid these secret power guzzlers!

If you use soft ice cream machines in your ice cream parlor, then you should of course also subject them to a thorough assessment. Because even with soft ice cream machines, an unnecessarily high energy consumption can be avoided through a forward-looking approach.

Replace the agitators at an early stage!

Here too, worn parts of the machine work less efficiently than components that are not subject to wear. Therefore, you should regularly check the agitator of your machine and replace it at an early stage. It is also easier on your machine if you replace all components when they are worn out.

Use cold water if possible

You can reduce energy consumption in the production of soft ice cream by ensuring that the soft ice cream mix is filled as cold as possible. This way, the machine does not have to cool down the mix. You save a lot of energy if the soft ice cream machine only has to cool the ice cream mixture from +5 °C to -7 °C instead of from +20 °C to -7 °C, for example. By the way, you also increase the performance of your machine, because it can produce more ice per hour.

So always use cold water to prepare your soft ice cream mix, or pre-chill the mix in the refrigerator or freezer after mixing, if necessary.

Also check the seals of other devices

You should also make sure that as little cold as possible can escape from refrigerators, cold rooms or under-counter cooling systems. For this reason, you should also check all seals here and replace them if necessary, because every worn seal is a cold bridge.

In particular, defective door seals can ensure that not only cold is lost and thus more energy has to be used, but also more moisture gets inside due to the warm outside air. This in turn causes the evaporators of the cooling system to ice up, making them less efficient and therefore consuming more power.

Save energy by replacing old refrigerators or freezers

What applies to ice machines naturally also applies to other electrical appliances such as refrigerators or freezers. This is because older models usually have significantly higher energy consumption and are designed to be less efficient.

These old power-hungry models are mostly equipped with old and less efficient refrigerant, as well as poor insulation. New models are more expensive, but they have thicker and better foamed insulation and have more efficient cooling systems.

Again, choose the right size to save energy in the ice cream parlor!

If you use several refrigerators or even several freezers in your ice cream parlor, then you should consider replacing them with one large refrigerator and one large freezer. After all, for the same amount of storage space, one large cell uses significantly less energy than having to operate multiple cabinets.

In addition, combined cold storage or deep-freeze rooms offer the advantage that significantly less energy is lost when the deep-freeze area is opened than with conventional refrigerators. So you can save additional energy thanks to the resulting cold lock.

General measures to save energy

One measure that you should not underestimate and which is often neglected is to take care of economical light bulbs and replace them in all devices.

You should definitely replace incandescent and halogen bulbs with LED bulbs to waste less energy. Of course, this means that you will have to invest in new LED bulbs and that will initially lead to higher expenses.

In the long term, however, it pays off, as this example clearly shows:
If 20 100-watt incandescent bulbs are replaced by 20 11-watt LEDs, almost 1.8 kWh are saved per hour.

This means that with electricity costs of 40 cents per kWh and an operating time of ten hours, you would save €7.20 every day. With 200 operating days, that's a total of up to €1,400!

As you can see, it's also worth taking a look at supposedly small power guzzlers and calculating whether the effort would be worthwhile over a longer period of time. Because even small things make a mess, and especially when energy costs skyrocket, you can make a big difference with small changes.