Three Kettle Electric Addition

I've been looking for a way to take advantage of solar energy...yet retain the ability to brew remotely using propane. The answer came today in a box shipped from Bobby M. They are EXACTLY what I needed! . These will allow for a heating element to be installed in each of the 15 gallon pots. With 70 amp service to the garage and two separate 30 amp grounded circuits; two controllers should get the job done. These enclosures will be installed on this system with 4500w elements in the mash tun & boil kettle. A 5500w element will be installed in the HLT.

Having the ability to remove the heating elements & cap the kettles using TC fittings for a propane brew day is a brilliant idea! . Things should come together in the next few weeks...

Cheers

brewing with solar panels?

Mellman said:

brewing with solar panels?

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To clarify...Using electricity produced from solar panels to brew with. We took advantage of solar incentives last year.

GREM said:

To clarify...Using electricity produced from solar panels to brew with. We took advantage of solar incentives last year.

Click to expand...

yea i figured as much; but how are you getting enough energy? I don't know much about solar but you must have a pretty big array of panels/batteries to supply sufficient 5kw of power; do you have more details on that part of the setup?

Basically what he's saying is that he installed a grid-tied solar panel system which effectively eliminates net electricity usage. Even if during a brew day the system is supplemented by utility provider power, the other non-peak power generation makes up for it. When you have a PV system, it makes less sense to use propane or gas.

Mellman said:

yea i figured as much; but how are you getting enough energy? I don't know much about solar but you must have a pretty big array of panels/batteries to supply sufficient 5kw of power; do you have more details on that part of the setup?

Click to expand...

Similar to what Bobby M explained above, we are supplying solar power to the grid. We took the plunge & purchased a 10KW stand alone solar system with over 30 panels. We signed a twenty year contract with our utility provider to sell them everything the system produces at X cents per kilowatt hour monitored on one outgoing meter. We receive a check each month from our utility provider from that meter. A second meter registers our usage & is what is used to bill us; or credit us in the form of what are called REC's. This meter is a digital meter with five digits. Visualize 00000 as the starting point when the solar system is first turned on. When we are pulling power from the grid on a cloudy day the meter moves in the positive direction. Let's say we use 30 kwh of energy that day. The meter would read 00030. On the second day it's cloudy again, & we've decided to brew using electricity. It jumps up to 00130. That's not good as the utility company bills us on everything above 00000 on the billing date. On day three the sun comes out & we "solar gain" 30 kwh, so now the meter reads 00100. A little better. Lets say the sun shines for another five days straight & produces 30 kwh each day for a total of 150kwh. The meter now reads 99950.

As the meter turns backward or goes in the negative direction; REC's or "renewable energy credits" are "banked" in our favor and can be drawn upon as needed for the duration of the contract. Hope this helps...

After some careful thought; I did it today. I punched a 1.5" hole into the backside of one of my perfectly good & functional 15.5 gal Bayou Classic pots.

I'll be taking it to a friend who makes a living TIG welding on stainless in the food industry. Instead of a lengthy description of how my day went I took a few pics......more forthcoming...

All I can say is that everything fits perfect!







When all said & done it looks like this on the outside. Very nice & simple procedure thus far...:rockin:

I stopped by my welder's house on the way home from work. He had two pots completed & was working on the third. I'm glad I did; because I had no idea of how TIG welding differs from wire feed or stick. I came away with a whole lot more respect for anyone who is a TIG welder.

In short he welded from the outside of the kettle while purging the inside of the kettle with Argon.

He used my false bottom & some cardboard from an empty case of beer to seal the lower portion of the kettle so he didn't have to purge the whole 15 gallon volume of the kettle.

He also welded the fitting flush to the inside of the kettle for sanitary reasons & also to allow me to use the original false bottoms for those brew days when propane will be used

He explained how important it is to get the weld to go thru to the inside. The Argon purge helps the weld pattern or "weave" on the inside to become smooth instead of like broccoli or sugar. It is critical that there are no pinholes or gaps for bacteria to gather. He inspects his weld with a mirror & found a pinhole so wouldn't release the third kettle until he has a chance to tweak it a bit more tomorrow

The thinner kettle & the thicker fitting presented a challenge. He told me that if he had to do it again he would have preferred the hole size in the kettle to be the same as the inside diameter of the fitting. He would have then "tapered" the outer edge of the fitting so the thickness of the contact point was thinner for better heat control. Since I punched all three kettles there was no going back. Looks pretty darn good to me...:rockin:

I'll pick up the third pot tomorrow & start mocking things up for chord length & such. Dave at "High Gravity" is building me two controllers & sending three unwired heating elements. I've decided to go with one 5500W element for the HLT, one 4500W element for the mash, & one 4500W element for the boil kettle. More later...

I received the controllers & heating elements earlier in the week. Had a chance to mock the elements up. This is the boil kettle with the pickup tube turned a little to the side. I've got some ideas in regards to using it for whirlpooling. This is one of the 4500W elements installed in position


This one's the mash kettle with the pickup tube in normal position. It's also the 4500W element


Here's the 5500W element in the HLT. It sits real close to the kettle sidewall & almost touches the side. Any of you more experienced electric brewers see a problem with this? Thanks in advance


Here's the new false bottom I'm going to use that sits above the element. I experimented with it two weeks ago with the propane setup & no other false bottom. I brewed up a ten gallon batch of Black IPA with a 27 lb grain bill & sparged like normal into the boil kettle. I used 1.5 qts water per lb of grain to compensate for the added space to clear the element. I recirculated the whole time during the mash & hit my numbers almost spot on. It also filtered the wort going into boil kettle very nicely


Looking forward to trying everything out in about a week if all goes well...

Very nice set up! Congrats!

lovely

This is pretty cool!

Thanks to a neighbor who's a wiz with electricity; everything is wired up. The controllers are mounted within reach; operational & ready for a test brew. I replaced the 5500W element with another 4500W element so all three kettles will be equipped with the same elements. On electric brew days "Ruby" will be situated in the same stationary position in the garage; so we wired up each kettle with it's own custom length of chord to the dual controllers

I'll be using two "High Gravity" controllers. One will automatically control the recirculated mash temps thru my "false bottom". The other will be used to heat first the HLT water & then used again for the boil


Each controller has it's own dedicated 30 amp outlet


At this stage it's not pretty as there are wires & chords routed everywhere. Reminds me of the engine compartment in the Gremlin before we cleaned everything up. A wiring loom comes to mind...

Looking forward to trying everything out...

Tested out the electric system today. "Homer the Homebrew Hound" & myself brewed up a ten gallon batch of IPA with a 31 lb grain bill.

I'm sold!:rockin:.

Hands down one of the smoothest brew days in memory. Really weird to be able to listen to the radio & carry on a conversation . Used the EBC-SV to control mash temps while recirculating. It maintained desired temps to within 1 degree for the entire mash time.

The manual controller allowed for precise control of both the HLT water & the boil. We filled the boil pot to within 1" from the top with wort & were able to control the boil with enough precision to prevent a "boilover". The 4500W element on max power provided the perfect amount of energy for an aggressive boil.

Couldn't be happier with the results & looking forward to the next brewday...