Will the UK energy crisis destroy my microgreens farm?
An important question on lots of people’s lips right now!
This autumn, the UK has seen unprecedented rises in electricity and gas costs and this will inevitably affect our indoor microgreens farms core business costs throughout the country. So is it worth continuing with your farm from this winter? We don’t actually know for sure that energy costs will ever stop rising, let alone return to where they were only a few months ago. Is it even worth setting up a micogreens farm at all in this current climate? This is what I want to discuss in today’s blog post.
As it stands in the UK, unless you managed to secure a longer term fixed deal earlier than the energy cap rise came into play, not even moving providers or tariffs any more can help out very much. So now, it’s all about being pro-active about what we can do and control that will help mitigate the energy costs at our microgreens farms.
For me personally, I’m absolutely going to continue running and growing my microgreens farm. I love this business. I love growing food week in week out, I love connecting to my local community, I love the flexibility it offers my life. So for me, an energy crisis isn’t going to stop me. If you want to run this business no matter what, it’s essential that it’s set up and operated robustly enough to weather the storms. Whatever they may be. I also fully understand that everyone’s situation is different, expecially financially, so this is just my insight into this topic and hopefully it can help some of you too.
Nell’s Urban Greens, Leeds, UK - 2022.
You can produce an abundance of profitable microgreens energy efficiently in just a small space.
Money well spent
Ultimately, in my opinion, growing highly nutritious food for your local community, year round, is a great use of electricity! However, at the same time, you certainly don’t want to be wasting it, so will need to focus on making your operation as energy efficient as possible.
Firstly, here are all the appliances you’re likely to be using in your microgreens business which will require mains gas or electricity:
Heating during colder periods.
Electricity for grow lights.
Dehumidifier(s).
Fans
Fridge(s)
10 ways to ensure your microgreens farm is as energy efficient as possible:
Make sure your grow room is very well insulated, then you're not paying for energy that is wasted. The most effective thing you can do!
If you're unable to grow consistent crops under natural sunlight (ie most areas of the UK!), you’ll need supplementary lighting. Go for low energy LED lights rather than flourescents.
Use the heat output by-product from your de-humidifiers (this was a game changer for me and I barely have to use another heat source as a result). De-humidifiers generally use much less electricity than electric heaters and they're bringing your humidity down at the same time. Double win!
During the summer, if it’s warm enough, open windows (and even doors) to help dissipate humidity instead of turning the dehumidifier on.
Experiment with the length of time you put your lights on for a day. Mine have hit a sweet spot now of 10 hours on and 14 hours off. Still short grow cycles and a great quality crop.
Take advantage of the sun where possible! If you have a grow room with windows and natural light coming in, maybe reduce your LED lights time (or even turn them off altogether) if it’s a particularly sunny day or week. If you have the outdoor space, it might be useful to move reliable crops such as pea and radish shoots outside in a greenhouse for instance during the summer. This will cut down on your indoor space needed and therefore also energy use.
Keep your business at home on a domestic energy tariff rather than a business one. Business tariffs have been helped hugely in that past few weeks with the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, but this is currently only in place for 6 months. Business energy tariffs generally have no price cap and long term contracts that are harder to get out of.
Another bonus of running your microgreens business from your house is that you can generally just circulate the central heating that’s on anyway during the winter and reducing the need for an extra source to be on.
Don’t consume energy unnecessarily - experiment with your growing and see if any appliances can be on for less time or replaced for more efficient ones, without compromising your crop quality.
And finally, a key situatuion you should always aim for is to make full use of your growing space! If you’re heating and lighting it anyway, the more microgreens you can grow in there and sell on, the more return on your heating investment you will get back. An obvious one, but one that I always focus on when costs are going up. Maximising the profits out of the space you have.
A brief case study of energy use at my microgreens farm:
All operations will be different, but here’s a brief overview of the current electricity useage at my microgreens farm (as of November 2022). My space measures 6 metres x 3 metres.
I currently grow around 80 trays of microgreens a week on 5 grow racks with lights (including germination spaces). My lights are LEDs and use 20W each.
At capacity, each grow rack produces around £200+/week of microgreens.
The lights cost around 40p/day for 10 hours on, 14 hours off. This is on our new domestic capped electricity tariff - 33p/unit.
My grow room is well insulated and just uses 2 x 300W dehumidifiers as and when needed for de-humidifying as well as heating.
I run 1 oscillating floor fan and have several clip on fans, again on when needed.
1 run two fridges and one gets turned off when not in use.
In total, my whole operation costs approximately £30/week for electricity, year round, and my sales are around £900 a week from that.
My total energy costs are just over 3% of revenue. Which is certainly sustainable in my business.
This is what to aim for - keeping this percentage as low as possible and you do that by -
Keeping the energy costs down in the first place PLUS maximising sales in the same space.
So to answer ‘will the current energy crisis in the UK destroy my microgreens farm’ - it could, but it shouldn’t!
It will all depend on:
1. How your operation is set up, including overheads such as staff and rent. Keep these to a minumum.
2. How energy efficiently it’s all run. See above!
3. How many punnets of microgreens you’re able to shift a week. The more the better in the same space.
I hope this post has helped to inform you and given you a detailed insight into how a microgreens farm can be run energy efficiently. But ultimately it’s up to you if energy cost rises aren’t worth running your microgreens business any more.
My own opinion is still the same as it has been for the past 5 years - small scale microgreens farming is one of the best businesses in the world. Through global pandemics, energy crises, cost of living crisies; you work hard, you adapt and you keep feeding people nutritious food. And if your farm has survived the last couple of years, I reckon it can survive anything!
My 14-page Mini UK Microgreens Business Guide will help you to work out your potential profits from your microgreens farm and give you an idea of how much you can produce in the space you have.
Dive right in!
You’ll also get:
5 great reasons for starting a microgreens business in the UK right now
A basic equipment list
A step-by-step guide to growing and harvesting radish shoots and pea shoots, including UK pricing suggestions and profit margins.
A how-to guide to selling your microgreens to chefs, restaurants and your local community.