Electric heating element requirements

I want to brew 5 gallon all grain batches in my basement. I want to heat with electricity. How powerful do my heating elements need to be? I anticpate using two heating elements: one for heating the sparge water and the other for the boil.

I will appreciate suggestions.

try heating elements out of big urns

Although a few homebrewers in the UK use gas, most will use an electric fired boiler (you dont have to worry about boiling outside or the gas runing ou ). 1 x 2.4kw element is sufficient although it takes a while to bring 5 gals to the boil, so i've installed 2 x 2.4kw elements and use both to bring the wort to the boil and switch to one to maintain a rolling boil. If you use anything more powerfull you may find it usefull to install a power controler.

Try searching on heat sticks.

I also brew all grain in my basement with electric. I use a 3.5kw low density element in a keggle. I use a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler for my hlt with a small heating element in the bottom. I wish I could say I came up with it but I found the idea on www.powersbrewery.com. check it out, that guy has it all figured out and I have modeled my equipment after his and it works great.

I just use a cheap domestic immersion heater.

You have to watch that you get an element with enough area otherwise it will scorch the wort. And some elements are supposed to be mounted horizontally and not vertically, according to the instructions that come with them.

I use a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler for my hlt with a small heating element in the bottom.

Click to expand...

How do you like that setup ? Are you finding the Gott is standing up OK or is it warping ?

I love the setup. the inside white plastic shell has developed waves or indications of warping but that occured the first time or two and since then it has been perfect. I control the element with a Ranco ETC. Scorching is not an issue because i only use this to heat my hot water for sparging. I also use the same kind of cooler for mashing but without a heating element. I find that it loses about 1-2 degrees per hour during a 10lbs 153F mash.