What Is Your Hotel Really Spending on Gel Fuel?

Gel fuel looks cheap because you buy it in cases, the individual cans are inexpensive, and the line item rarely gets questioned.

But multiply that small purchase across every buffet, every service and every day of the year, and the number starts to look very different.

Here’s what it can look like.

The scenario

Imagine a mid-size hotel running a breakfast buffet seven days a week:

• 6 chafing pans
• 2 disposable fuel cans per pan per service
• 12 cans per day
• 365 days per year

That works out to:

12 × 365 = 4,380 disposable fuel cans per year.

And that's before adding lunch service, banquets, conferences or special events.

The direct fuel cost

At $2.10 per can, for example:

4,380 × $2.10 = $9,198 per year.

For a property running additional meal periods or frequent banquet service, that number can climb quickly.

The important part isn't whether your exact can costs $2.10.

It's knowing what your number is.

Then there are the costs nobody puts on the fuel line

Storage.
Disposable alcohol-based fuels are flammable products, so properties need to store and handle them according to applicable fire-safety requirements. That means space, procedures and inventory management all become part of the equation.

Labour.
Every service requires staff to open, position, light, monitor, extinguish, collect and dispose of individual fuel cans. A few minutes at a time may not look significant, but across hundreds of services a year, those minutes add up.

Waste.
4,380 disposable fuel cans means 4,380 pieces of packaging entering your waste stream every year, along with any residual fuel. Even where recycling options exist, collection and disposal still require handling.

Safety.
Alcohol-based flames can be difficult to see, and fuel-related burns are a documented safety concern. Health Canada specifically warns that some alcohol-based fuels can burn with flames that are difficult to see.

Guest experience.
Open-flame fuel adds another variable to buffet service, from managing individual cans to maintaining consistent heat throughout the service.

The cost you can actually calculate

Start with the number that's sitting right in front of you:

Annual disposable fuel cost =

Number of pans × cans per pan × services per day × operating days × cost per can

For our example:

6 × 2 × 1 × 365 × $2.10 = $9,198 per year

And that's just the fuel.

It doesn't include the staff time spent handling it, storage requirements, waste management or the operational cost of dealing with an open-flame fuel system.

The refillable alternative

EcoBurner replaces disposable gel and wick fuel with a refillable butane burner that sits underneath the chafing dish.

Instead of buying and disposing of another fuel can every time the buffet is serviced, the burner is refilled and reused.

That means the comparison isn't simply:

gel fuel vs. butane fuel.

It's:

disposable fuel + handling + waste + ongoing replacement

versus

a reusable heating system + refillable fuel.

And EcoBurner's published carbon comparison also shows a significant difference in emissions compared with ethanol gel.

What to do next

1. Pull your last 12 months of chafing-fuel invoices.
2. Count your pans and services per day.
3. Calculate your annual disposable fuel consumption.
4. Add the labour and waste considerations.
5. Ask EcoBurner for a costed comparison based on your actual setup.

You may be surprised by how much that “small” fuel line is really costing you.

EcoBurner Canada supplies refillable butane buffet heating to hotels, caterers and venues across Canada. See how much you could save by switching from disposable fuel.