BCS-460, 3 elements, 2 pumps

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I have no clue. That is something you need to decide.

Are you going to house the BCS controller in it? Aux power? Other stuff?

Lots of factors involved as well..
 
Another question...I have an empty 40 amp breaker instead of a 50 I'm my breaker box, can i stick with it? Or do I need the 50 amp?
 
The particular schematic is drawn for a 50A GFCI power feed. It requires a 50A GFCI protected line from the mains for it to work properly.

You might get away with a 40A feed if you reduce the element wattage on the HLT and BOIL elements.

That is something for you to decide.
 
Check out the sticky at the top of the electric brewing forum. This will give you a good primer and answer a lot of questions you did not know you had. It was immensely helpful with my build.

Current Ratings and Circuit Protection:
The electrons flowing through a wire or subject to the same laws of physics just like everything else. As the electrons move the encounter friction which creates heat. The amount of friction created is subject to the size wire you use. Imagine two pieces of pipe, one is 1 inch wide and another is 6 inches wide. It is easier to push 1000 gallons a minute out of the 6 inch pipe than the 1 inch pipe because there is less friction. A wire’s AWG or Gauge is the width of a wire and the smaller the number, the larger the wire.
The reason why this relationship is important is that if too many Amps travel through a wire it starts to build heat and could get hot enough to melt/burn the protective insulation off leaving a bare wire. Worse still, the wire could get hot enough to cause whatever it may be touching to catch fire. Here is a table showing the maximum current ratings for the most common sized wires.
AWG/Max Current
14 AWG/15 Amps
12 AWG/20 Amps
10 AWG /30 Amps
8 AWG / 40 Amps
6 AWG/55 Amps

To prevent a wire from getting too hot circuit breakers and fuses are used. These guys sense how much current is passing through a wire and if the current is greater than the fuse/breaker’s rating it will open up, essentially disconnecting the over drawn circuit from power. The size of the circuit breaker or fuse is determined by the size of wire attached to it. So if 14 AWG is used, nothing larger than a 15 Amps breaker/fuse can be used. If 10 AWG were used then anything up to and including a 30 Amp breaker/fuse may be used.
Breakers and fuses are meant to save property NOT LIFE! 1 Amp is more than enough to kill you.
Once the service wire makes it to the brew rig it can be redistributed using smaller wires. The important thing to remember is every time the wire size gets smaller, it needs a fuse or breaker rated no larger than the wires maximum rating.
For example, if a 30 amp services is brought to the brew rig and a circuit for the March pumps needs no more than 15 amps then 14 AWG wire may be used. To do this though, a 15 amp fuse/breaker must be installed between the two. So the 10 AWG wire providing power will go into the supply side of a 15 Amp breaker/fuse and the 14 AWG wire going to the march pumps goes into the load side of the breaker/fuse. The 14 AWG wire is now adequately protected.

from the sticky.
 
Looks like the diagram that the Electric Yoda(PJ) conjured up and drew for me, if I can answer any construction questions let me know.
 
Beeskneesbrew, I don't want to be rude, but I know this will sound like it. You are talking about playing with 40 amps, it takes much less than 1 amp to kill you and you keep asking very basic questions and relying on a message forum to answer your questions about something that is potentially deadly. This sounds like you have very little knowledge when it comes to dealing with electricity. Before you get underway I would highly, highly recommend you do some solid research in what you are doing.

I'm in somewhat of a similar boat as I am working on going electric as well; but, before I jump into buying anything I am doing my homework so I know what things are and how they work before getting into the design phase. A good place to start is Kal's theelectricbrewery.com. Read through his build and it will give you some good information and from there I'd do more research. Then, you will start having very specific questions that folks will be happy to help you with and we won't worry about you cooking yourself.
 
I'm not sure how you learn, but asking questions is how I do. I'm not the only one building this control panel, a friend if mine who is an electrical contractor will be sitting in and helping me. While everyone has there opinion on which way is better, I run things that I've read in this forum by him before anything is done. Thanks for your concern!

Matt
 
I'm not sure how you learn, but asking questions is how I do. I'm not the only one building this control panel, a friend if mine who is an electrical contractor will be sitting in and helping me. While everyone has there opinion on which way is better, I run things that I've read in this forum by him before anything is done. Thanks for your concern!

Matt

That's good to hear, I'd hate to see a crsipy version of you used by the teetotalers as reason to outlaw homebrewing.

But, as I said, Kal has done an excellent write up that explains components that you will likely be using and shows how they are wired. So, even if you don't use his diagrams, you have plenty of solid info to cover your bases.
 
PJ,
Whats ur reasoning behind using a SSR and contactor in series? Is it incase the SSR fails closed?
The contactor allow the power to the elements to be shut off. The SSR does not do that as there will still be voltage present even when the SSR is not conducting..
 
The contactor allow the power to the elements to be shut off. The SSR does not do that as there will still be voltage present even when the SSR is not conducting..

Safety is #1, and contactors provide that... which is why I should've installed them in my control panel. D'oh!
 
Beesknees, also do some research into the contactors as there are a lot of manufactures and a few different styles. I bought these heavy duty relays for my control box. They work great but are a bit on the large size. If I had to do it over again I'm sure I could have found a comparable component that would have worked but had been a lot smaller.

I built a BCS system, and followed PJ's diagram he gave to you almost to a tee. I put it into a 12x12x6 box, but I'd highly recommend getting some thing bigger.

The one thing I did differently from what PJ drew up was to add two switches before the main power switch. The first switch powers up my Router, the second powers up my BCS460. this does two things. By powering up the router first it will be ready to receive the data packet the BCS sends out when it first powers up, and then is assigned its static IP. The second thing this does is it allows me to program and calibrate the BCS with out having to power on the high voltage components.
 
This is a great diagram thanks for all your hard work. What kind of switches are used in this diagram as well as where are theses sourced? Also where can the contactors be sourced with DIN attachment?

Thanks Caleb
 
This is a great diagram thanks for all your hard work. What kind of switches are used in this diagram as well as where are theses sourced? Also where can the contactors be sourced with DIN attachment?

Thanks Caleb
The switches are called out in the Legend at the bottom of the drawing page.
Switch #1 is a momentary contact - N/O - push button switch: automationdirect.com - GCX3139 < click it
Switch #2-8 are three position - center off switches: automationdirect.com - GCX3264-120 < click it

Switches 5, 6, & 7 require a second N/O module to have it operate as drawn. None of the switches require the N/C modules. You might be able to negotiate with them to swap the N/C modules for N/O modules. I think it's worth a try anyway.

BTW: The DIN circuit breakers and DIN rails also come from Automation Direct.

Hope this helps you.
 
What does the n/o contact do on switches 5-8?
They provide a seperate path to interlock the system and prevent more than 2 elements from being powered at the same time. They also provide a path to select whether the elements are powered by the BCS system or with manual mode if the BCS system is not available or IF it has failed...

Oh... And the extra n/o modules are for 5-7.

Hope this helps.
 
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