# How much power does an improved paddy cleaner save in a small rice mill?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/rice-mill-improved-paddy-cleaner-saving

In BEE's Ganjam report, a new 1 TPH paddy cleaner on a 0.75 kW motor replaces an old one drawing 2.2 kW, saving 4,959 kWh a year, about 3.3 t CO2. Cost Rs 0.55 lakh, saving Rs 0.21 lakh, payback about 2.6 years. In mills whose old cleaner draws less, the payback stretches to 5 or 6 years.

## How much of the mill's bill the cleaner takes

The report's example mill processes 3,420 t a year at 1 tonne an hour, 12 hours a day for 285 days, using about 37 MWh, 11.56 kWh a tonne. Its old 3 HP paddy cleaner draws 2.2 kW: 7,524 kWh a year, about a fifth of the mill's power for one machine. About half the cluster's mills run cleaners this old.

## Old against new

- Old: 3 HP motor drawing 2.2 kW, 7,524 kWh a year.
- New: 1 HP motor rated 0.75 kW, 1 TPH, self-cleaning screens that can be swapped by grain type: 0.75 x 3,420 h = 2,565 kWh a year.
- Saving: 4,959 kWh, Rs 0.21 lakh at Rs 4.20 a kWh.
- Cost: cleaner Rs 0.50 lakh after the supplier's discount, plus Rs 0.05 lakh for cabling, shaft and fitting: Rs 0.55 lakh. Six days to change over.

## Your old cleaner decides the payback

- The example mill: 7,524 kWh a year now. Saving 4,959 kWh, payback about 2.6 years.
- A second audited mill: 5,280 kWh now. Saving 2,715 kWh, Rs 0.11 lakh, payback about 4.8 years.
- A third: 4,620 kWh now. Saving 2,055 kWh, Rs 0.09 lakh, payback about 6.4 years.
- Clamp a meter on your cleaner for one full shift before you order. The new machine also cleans better, which protects rubber rolls and bran oil, so weigh that too.

## The example mill, one year

- 2.2 kW x 12 h x 285 days = 7,524 kWh
- New: 0.75 kW x 3,420 h = 2,565 kWh
- Saved: 4,959 kWh x 0.675 = 3.3 t CO2
- The report's 4 t uses an older grid factor of about 0.81

CO2 at CEA's FY 2025-26 grid factor of 0.675 kg per kWh. Paybacks at the report's Rs 4.20 a kWh.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible's calculators turn kWh into CO2 on the current grid factor. For a rice mill on grid power alone, the monthly electricity bill is nearly the whole footprint, and Senseible reads those bills into records.

- [Carbon calculators](https://senseible.earth/calculators)
- [Ganjam rice mills: power records that pay](https://senseible.earth/answers/ganjam-rice-mills-electricity-saving)
- [Rice mill: common shaft to separate motors](https://senseible.earth/answers/rice-mill-common-shaft-to-individual-drive-1tph)
- [Rice mill voltage stabiliser](https://senseible.earth/answers/rice-mill-voltage-stabiliser-kwh-saving)

Sources: [BEE, Detailed project report: new improved design paddy cleaner (1.0 TPH), Ganjam rice mill cluster (SAMEEEKSHA)](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/dpr/Ganjam_rice_mill_cluster/09_Paddy_cleaner_10ton_Ganjam_Rice_mill.pdf), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 22.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-view?mappingId=234&lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-11-01. Report figures are from a BEE SME programme project report; costs and paybacks are at the report year's prices. Check today's tariff and a current quote.