Can you give us a general idea of the pots/process you currently use?
I know it depends on the product, quantity, etc. but here's mine. I use a standard electric stove. No canning element, nothing special.

BWB:
Canner is on large front burner (right side, my counter space is to the right). Filled with clean jars and halfway or so with water to keep hot. Medium heat for now.
Small saucepan with lids and rings right behind it on small burner. Medium heat to warm them.

"Product" if it is hot pack is on the left side large burner simmering.

As I fill the jars (2 at a time usually), I gradually start to turn up the temp on the canner. As soon as the last jar goes in, I pour in the water from the lid/ring pot since it's already hot, crank it to high and put the lid on. Watch/listen for it to boil, then turn down the heat to maintain a gentle boil so it doesn't splash all over. Process for required time.

Turn down the "product" to a very low simmer and put the lid on to maintain as much heat as possible. If you have another canner-ful to process, run hot tap water into the lid/ring pot when there's about 5 minutes left on the first batch and turn back burner on again to start the heating.

By the time you turn off the first batch, let sit for 5 minutes or so, remove jars and fill new ones your lids/rings will be warm. Repeat till done.

It's pretty much the same for pressure canning except the timing to start heating the 2nd batch of lids, because of the longer cool down time.

If I'm doing cold pack, I just don't have the "product" heating so it's only 2 pans.

Now, when my mom comes and we process 75 quarts of green beans, 50 pints of peaches, and large batches like that, I make some adjustments. I have 2 canners going, we cold pack, and I boil water in my microwave and toss the lids/rings into it and let it sit on the counter to stay warm.

Other stuff.....
Prep as much as you can the night before (i.e. snap beans and put in the fridge overnight, chop all salsa ingredients and then stir together in the morning, etc.). Some things this just won't work....

Re-use your canner water, don't dump out and start over unless ya have a "train wreck" in there (broken jar).

Run the jars through the dishwasher and leave them in there until ready to use, they'll stay hot enough. Luckily, my dishwasher is directly under my counter where I fill jars.

Hope that helps some.....

Deanna

Well, part of the problem may be that I do mostly small batch canning. When I do 1/2 pints I use a stockpot for the BWB. But when I do the squat 1/2 pints or pints, I have to fire up the big canner, which is often only half full. I need a pot high enough to have 1 inch above the rims, but smaller around than my big black steel beast.

I haven't found a smaller jar pot yet, because those higher soup stock pots aren't quite big enough around.

I also use a stainless steel cheapo pot for doing jams. I guess I need a nice aluminum bottom pot, but they are so expensive. I have one nice aluminum clad pot, my stockpot, but when I'm doing a small batch I use that for the jars.

When I can, I do occasional quarts of peaches or jardinaire, but mostly jams, relishes and sala in 1/2 pints, 1/4 pints, or pints. This year I did spahgetti sauce in pints.
I haven't found reason to pressure can in years, although I do have a small 6 qt. pressure canner.

I don't have an answer for you on a small electric burner. I can on my electric Jenn-aire range, but I do have the canning ring for the large burner of my additional burners insert. You might want to check out flea markets and garage sales for more efficient pots and different sized pots to meet your needs. The tips Deanna gave are excellent and I heat the water for my lids to sit in in the microwave all the time. Have you tried heating your water for your canning pots in the microwave or at least part of it?

Its only me here, and my monthly electric bill are at least $197 per month on a budget plan. That also is a reduced rate due to a fixed income from SS. Electric stove burner elements are rated at 220 volts, and are usually higher wattages (hence amperage too). There are currently no individual plug in electric burners that are able to give the same wattage or heat as those in an electric stove. The wattage of a plug in 110 volt burner is about 1000 watts at best (thats about 10 amps). With a stove element, the burners are running at 220 volts, and if they were also rated at about 1000 watts, they would actually be drawing about TWICE the amprage as a 110 volt element. Suffice to say, about the ONLY energy saver is burning wood. If your elctric stove burners do not read a red hot state when set on high, they may ned replacement, or the sockets they plug into are going bad. One important thing about electricity is if there is a poor connection where the burners plug into the sockets on the stove, it heats up at that point, and if it heats up too much, the metal oxidizes and creates even a poorer comnnection, which will reduce the heating effects greatly. This will make for a longer heating needed to get things to boil. When I fill up a canner, its filled with hot water from the faucet, and is placed on a 'canning burner' on the stove, which is raised up higher and has the proper amount of support for the extra heavy weight. Without a special canning burner, the regular ones will heat up the metal struts that support them, and begin to sag into the stove, where they lose more of their heat due a closer proximity of the bowl below the burner which also is taking heat away. This is the main reason I use a steam canner ONLY for my high acid foods, as it takes very little to get the canner boiling again, once the jars are inside.

Well, I have a canning element now, and replaced my old ratty sockets, so it looks like at this point the best investment is going to be for some efficient pots.
I'm wondering if heating the water for the BWB in the microwave for a while would be a savings?

There were some previous posts about using propane for canning.

In my experience with using a Sears camping stove with a propane tank attachment allowed me to do just about anything in the way of cooking. Certainly, boiling a pot of water would be a snap, and probably much faster than even my usual natural gas stove.

If you have room for such - I think you would find your utility bills much lower. Electricity here is terribly expensive anyway, especially anything that heats. Glad I have gas to work with.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Microwaving water for the canner? How would you do that? Metal cannot be used in a microwave, so your limited to either heavy corning ware or glass. If these are used to heat the water, they will be very difficult to handle once they are very hot. Imagine trying to get a gallon of boiling water out of a small microwave and pouring same into a big canner.. Not a good thing as to safety. Many micrwaves run about about 1000 watts and, take almost as long to come to a boil as if it were drawn from the hot water tap. Propane may be ok, as it does burn quite hot. Hotter even than regular natural gas. If BWB canning it will heat the pot fast, but for pressure canning, it may be very hard to regulate the lower heat settings, unless the burner has more than one set of jets and multiple controls. Propane also needs a bit more ventilation as its usualy not recommended indoors without some kind of venting system.

I suspect that the culprit is the large BWB canner - last summer, I got one when we were trying to do umpty quarts of sauerkraut, and I was amazed at how long it took for the whole thing to get back up to a boil. Like an hour. I won't use it again. I use a tallish, 12 qt stock pot that holds 4 qt jars.

My Sept electric bill is maybe $20 more, say $60 a month to $80, this last year we did well over 400 qt and pint jars, and had the dehydrator going, and the music was blasting, strobe lights, oh, wait.....

I have a camp stove but it uses white gas, not propane. I'm leery of using it inside, as I would be of propane. I could use it outside I guess, to heat the water for the BWB. But my house is not very well set up for that, there's no way to cover the stove, and it would necessitate running back and forth between my kitchen and yard and that doesn't seem very safe with hot stuff and also air and germs more chance to mix in.

David, my electric bill is going up about the rate of yours. That 20-30 bucks is a lot for me!

I'm wondering if I was to buy a new stove, what would be an energy efficient electric model good for canning. I loathe those flat topped ranges.

Some of you people are very lucky. Here, I have hot water by electric, the 40+ year old oil burner needs electric, I have an electric freezer, and expect that this summer (starts in July) to see bills topping over $200 per month. No gas on my street, and I wouldn't think about another propane tank underground next to my house, as the next door neighbor already has a huge one there. They fill his at least 3 times per year. My oil bill so far this winter is over $600. Just spoke to a furnace man because I can smell burning oil every time the furnce kicks in. He said to replace it. Cost, is about $8000, which will have to be done as soon as it warms up outside.

Ken - That is a lot of money - for the furnace that is.

One thing about the life we had, is that in moving around the country, we had a taste of what it's like living in those areas. As I mentioned - I grew up in cold country - and while it might be someone elses "cup of tea" - I always felt miserable with cold weather. My ex-husband, on the other hand, seemed not to mind.

So - now I will finish out my life in a warm climate - even going to the desert to get warm in the winter. Guess it all depends on a choice.

However, I notice, inspite of the recent jump in our electric/utilities, it is still affordable and weather-wise - easier to live with. Our usual gas/electric bills run close to $200 - with only a small storage freezer, 2 fridges (one small), microwave - the rest goes to lights and electronics. Seems awfully high - especially w/o air conditioning.

But on the other hand - I remember the high heating costs in winter elsewhere. Don't envy you there.

Solar would be an alternative alright - but would take quite awhile to recoup the initial investment. This is something to think about with a new roof or new construction, however.

Some of our desert friends have solar - the kind where they feed it back to the energy companies. But - they have sunshine almost 365 days a year. Can't beat that - and they also have humungous air conditioning bills in the summer time when the temps go to well over 100 every day.

Just my 2 c's. p.s. wish it would stop raining.

Bejay

Almost a foot of snow yesterday. Winter is back again. The ground was nearly free of all snow until yesterday. Would love to live wher eits warmer, but I doubt if I could get property as good as I have now. The roof is fairly new, but my windows are all old, and I had to reglaze all of them about 9 years ago as the glass panes were falling out. Very drafty too. Wish they were all double panes. That will be the next thing that will cost me. The reverse mortgage money has almost all been eaten up already.

lpinkmountain, You could pre heat water in an electric teapot. It would be more convenient than a microwave. Target sells the Aroma for $30. I doubt you would save much money.

You could insulate your pot with a pot blanket but I don't think they exist. I've seen them for transporting crock pots.

Use pressure canning if it is an option as it uses less energy.

Size your boiling water baths to the jars so you don't heat extra water.

An interesting option is the Swiss double wall stock pots. A bit pricey and the largest (5 liters, a bit more than 5 quarts) may not be big enough for your needs.

If you could use it for your cooking needs in addition to your caniing needs it may pay for itself in electric savings over five or ten years.

If you use 1000 watts for an hour that's a kilowatt-hour of electricity. At 10 cents per kilowatt-hour that's a dime a day or $36 per year. If you can cut the bill in half with an efficient pot that's $18 per year. It would take about twelve years to pay for a $200 pot!

If you use it more or if your juice costs more then the pay back time would be faster.

They claim 70 percent savings but that is if you use their cooking procedure....start cooking on the stove and then finish cooking with the heat off in their nice little pot holder which goes on the table.

Zeuspaul

Here is a link that might be useful: Kuh Rikon Thermal Cookware

I would not recommend heating large quantities of water in the microwave and transferring it to the pot. When water boils in a pot, the molecules at the bottom turn to steam, make bubbles, and rise to the top. Microwaves (the waves themselves) heat whatever molecules they hit, so you get molecules of steam mixed in throughout the water. This can cause the water to "explode" if you jostle it and there are a lot of steam molecules that suddenly get together and rapidly rise out of the liquid. It's not too common, because usually either the bubbles would escape sooner, or there wouldn't be too many steam molecules, but I would think with a bigger batch of water there's more room for variation in the process so more chance of overheating the water, plus way more potential for injury.

Lpinkmountain, I assume you are already keeping the pot lidded whenever possible as it's heating? That helps a lot. I have a tall speckled enameled stock pot from Target or Walmart that actually does fit quarts, with just enough room for an inch of water to slosh out only a little while boiling.

Electric stoves are actually more efficient than gas because less heat escapes around the pot since the heat transfer is mostly by conduction (touching) rather than convection (hot gases flowing, e.g. the products of combustion on a gas stove). With a gas stove, the extra heat would go into your house. If you have air conditioning, the cost to cool your house would be a little lower with an electric stove than a gas stove.

Do you have air conditioning? And what kind of heat do you have? I believe you are too far north for a heat pump, so maybe you have gas or oil heat? I wonder if the rise in your electric bill is caused more by your summer A/C usage than your canning. Heating and cooling are the largest costs on a residential electric bill, by far. Other things do make a difference, but if you can during the "shoulder season" when you aren't using heat or A/C, you should compare that bill to the ones in July and August.

Luckily electricity is cheap in Virginia (disclaimer: I am proud to work for the electric utility). During January I set my gas-boiler hot water radiator system to 62°F, and when I felt cold I blasted my electric space heaters (several hours a day). My gas bill went up by $100 ($200 total for gas and water). My electric bill went up $10 to $45.

One last thing, I think Ken made a "think-o" up there. Power = voltage x current (watts = volts x amps), so 1000 watts on a 110-volt plug would be about 10 amps, while 1000 watts on a 220-volt plug would be about 5 amps. That's why high voltage is useful for high-power applications like stoves and dryers.

Melissa

Melva,
What I was trying to say was that when a voltage rating of 220 is used, the amperage can still be something like 10 amps draw on the elements, but the wattage is twice that of the same amperage and at 110 volts. Houses are usually a 220 volt, 50, 100, or 200 amp service. If they were to have just 110 volts into houses, the amperages would have to be twice that, so wiring would need to be heavier gauge. The main fuse boxes (or circuit breakers) split the 220 volts down to 110 volts for use within the house outlets, but the raw 220 volts at high amps still goes to high power needs like stoves and water heaters. If all of these were running at 110 volts, the wiring would have to be almost double its thickness to carry the extra current. Thats why you can't use long extension cords on air conditioners or high amperage space heaters that are drawing someting like 12-15 amps, as the longer the cord, the less amps the AC gets, and some power cords can heat up too hot to work. They do make very heavy duty, but very short extension cords for high amp use. High amps at high voltages, give you higher wattages, which are necessary to get the electric heating elements to get red hot.

Initially I thought it was AC costs too, but when I saw my October bill I knew it was canning. I didn't run the AC in October.

Bummer about those pot calculations! Maybe I can find one at a yard sale!

I've pretty well kept quiet on this thread because what I know about electricity you could put on the head of a pin. Plus I've observed the differences are so great from region to region it's impossible to generalize.

But three brief observations:

1) Keep an eye out at Craigslist or garage sales or whatever for at least one really good stockpot. Put out the word among friends and one may turn up. A good stockpot will pay for itself many times over, especially in reduced waste, as the likelihood of scorching preserves and such is much less.

2) I'm now on my third electric kettle and recommend them highly. They are so fast and efficient at boiling water compared to a burner (at least in my case). You're going to get about two quarts of boiling water, which is perfect for topping off the BWB, using for lids, etc. etc. The uses are almost limitless. My most recent one is a smaller Hamilton-Beach which is insulated, so I can heat quickly and keep the water for a while. Good for tea.

I linked to mine below but there are lots of models out there including some as low as $15.

3) I don't know about where you are, but here there's a plan where your electricity costs are estimated for the year and then the cost is apportioned over the next 12 months. So instead of killer high utilities one part of the year and then lower other months, the charges are fairly consistent. You're not saving money per se but it's a lot easier to budget for a fixed cost and you don't get the sticker shock of those unanticipated bills.

I know it's hard when money is tight, especially when you're talking about how to afford a pleasurable and healthy hobby. I hope things work out for you.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Electric Kettle