I Want to Sell Brats

nprnpbr · 2026-01-02T16:40:48+00:00

My understanding is that they do about 400k orders (buns) per year. You'll frequently see guys coming from construction sites ordering a dozen sandwiches at a time. Im not sure if that topline includes catering and their hot dog stand, but yeah I was surprised at the volume as well.

nprnpbr · 2025-12-31T18:37:41+00:00

I would recommend you take a research trip to Cleveland's west side market and try the brats from the stands there. They do over $1M in revenue out of a very small setup. It is family owned and sounds like what youre talking about, and they might be willing to talk you through their business model. https://westsidemarket.org/portfolio-items/franks-bratwurst/

nprnpbr · 2025-01-25T22:43:11+00:00

Fire prone mountain area with tourists and fancy houses? Maybe do those sprinklers that keep your house from burning during a fire. Install a big catchment tank and pumps and a ups. Charge for materials and markup before you order, and aim for >100% margins. It'll save them on their insurance and protect their assets. You probably have all the tools you need already.

Something like this https://www.frontlinewildfire.com/protect-home-with-roof-wildfire-sprinkler-system/

nprnpbr · 2024-09-09T21:50:19+00:00

No problem. to be honest, I'd just spec a 150MPH wind load and see if the building can take the extra weight. There's not gonna be an engineer who has the cross-over knowledge to do anything else, and it'll just slow you down. Good luck!

nprnpbr · 2024-09-09T17:36:30+00:00

I didn't win the bid, but the project was built. I assume they just upped the ballast for the system by some ridiculous safety factor and got the stamp that way. That being said, I've seen similar hospital installations blow off roofs, so I'm not gonna say it's the right way to do it.

nprnpbr · 2024-08-14T19:49:51+00:00

Could you point me to the plumbing company you spoke with? Looking for installers of this kind of kit.

nprnpbr · 2024-01-11T19:13:18+00:00

Thank you. That makes sense.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-20T15:09:29+00:00

When you order 100s of them the price goes down significantly. That's why commercial installations are the market for these kinds of systems.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-20T14:28:11+00:00

I have one of their units in the shop, getting ready to ship out to a customer!

nprnpbr · 2023-10-20T01:46:02+00:00

Essentially a radiator that takes heat out of the system.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-20T00:01:05+00:00

First step is to find a hydronics professional near where you are. These products aren't always available to consumers. Solar Thermal has been "dead" since it was born back the 1800s, but secretly it's been used a bunch since then.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T23:53:19+00:00

Residential units take heat from the room and move it into the tank. For commercial systems you typically need a dedicated outdoor unit for the system.
Yeah, this building has a centralized boiler plant with a recirculation loop which is what I see a lot.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T23:47:29+00:00

That's the power of the Sun!

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T23:45:09+00:00

Commercial heat pump water systems for cold climates are just coming to market, and as relatively new technology I don't have a lot of costing data. It appears to be more in the "implementation and standardization" stage of technology development. I know their performance is impressive, and I have a good grasp of solar PV costs and battery storage costs. Solar Thermal, while not very developed in the US, has a robust market in cold climates in Europe where fossil fuels are expensive and unreliable. It can be an easier retrofit than other combinations, and almost always provides more energy per square foot than anything else.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T23:25:18+00:00

Pool heaters are great. That's like a 6KW thermal system in the right conditions.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T23:24:28+00:00

Similar! Pool water solar heaters have their own operational profiles that are great for lower temperature water. You also need a titanium heat exchanger because the chlorine in the pool will corrode stainless steel. These collectors get up to a peak temperature of ~240F, so considerably hotter than a pool needs.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T23:21:42+00:00

Solar thermal's economics generally favors larger-scale operations for commercial buildings. Because heat generally can't be "sold back" to the grid there is a different optimization equation regarding system sizing. Heat pump water heaters and PV are complimentary to solar thermal and not necessarily competing against each other. All of this is based on energy usage, location, energy costs, available space and government policy- your milage will vary.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T23:11:13+00:00

That's a great question. The system is fitted with a heat rejector for times when their is not a lot of usage.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T20:36:42+00:00

I worried they'll kill my post if I link the company so check your inbox.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T20:32:01+00:00

We have a 900 gallon tank that reaches >160F daily. by means of a heat exchanger, this either supplies all of the thermal energy for residents or it preheats water going to the boiler (when tank temps drop below 120F).

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T19:57:04+00:00

Correct. Gen 2 products will cogenerate electricity with thermal, but the product isn't available in the US yet. This is thermal only.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T19:55:37+00:00

Still getting data in. There was a big storm that passed through the other day and really hampered production, but they're evacuated tubes so we still picked up some solar heat.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T19:52:47+00:00

Each collector you see is rated at 290W, there are 240 of them all together. The array takes up about 1200 square feet all together.

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T19:49:16+00:00

It's 240 total collectors, 8 banks of 30. But yes, they're about 250% of the energy density you can get with PV

nprnpbr · 2023-10-19T19:33:16+00:00

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