Commercial Kitchen Equipment worked example

Energy Efficiency Payback with energy-efficiency upgrade capital cost of 19,300 $: a worked example

This worked example runs the energy efficiency payback numbers for a tougher week than the baseline: energy-efficiency upgrade capital cost of 19,300 $ instead of the typical 38,500 $. Estimate payback for commercial kitchen equipment energy-efficiency upgrades.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Energy-efficiency upgrade capital cost: 19,300 $ (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 38,500)
  • Annual kitchen utility bill savings: 9,200 $ / yr (held at the documented default)
  • Annual added service and maintenance cost: 1,200 $ / yr (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Net annual energy efficiency payback savings = annual kitchen utility savings - annual service and maintenance cost.
  • energy efficiency payback payback period works out to 2.41 yr at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • net annual energy efficiency payback savings works out to 8,000 $ / yr at these inputs.
  • energy-efficiency upgrade investment works out to 19,300 $ at these inputs.
  • five-year net energy efficiency payback cash impact works out to 20,700 $ at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where energy-efficiency upgrade capital cost sits at 38,500 $ and the headline result is 4.81 yr, this scenario comes in 49.87% below the baseline at 2.41 yr.
  • Use it to screen and rank commercial kitchen efficiency upgrades or to test whether a project clears your capital payback threshold before deeper analysis. A result at this level usually justifies acting on the stressed input before touching anything else, because every other figure in the table is downstream of it.

Results at a glance

  • energy efficiency payback payback period: 2.41 yr (headline result)
  • net annual energy efficiency payback savings: 8,000 $ / yr
  • energy-efficiency upgrade investment: 19,300 $
  • five-year net energy efficiency payback cash impact: 20,700 $

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Energy Efficiency Payback calculator, set energy-efficiency upgrade capital cost to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.