underatanding how much power i have to work with

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phoenixs4r

phoenixs4r

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So, I'm building an electric / gas hybrid brew stand. Nat gas for the BK, electric for the MT with rims, and trying to decide if I should go electric for the HLT. I figured how much electricity I have would detirmine that.

The breaker panel in the garage used to supply a HUGE pump that the landlord had to power his hot tub, it's 2 pull (I think? There's two tabs to turn on or off) and they both say 50. Does this mean 50 total or I have 100 amps to play with? It also links to another panel that is empty.



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Short answer is you have 50amp's of 220 volt power. The second panel looks like it is for those larege cylinder shaped fuses common for older hot tub set ups.

I can't make out the wires coming into the pannel but if there are 4 total, green, white, red and black then you can in theory get 110 and 220 to your brew rig out of that pannel assuming you do not have 110 already in the area. But you need to know what your doing before you start wiring that kind of set up.

If you are only going to be using one element at a time there is no reason you cant go full electric for everything because the most one of the 6600w elements pulls is around 24amp's.
 
Just red black and white unfortunately. There is 110 near by though, so as long as the march pump doesn't draw too many amps I should be fine as far as 110 goes.

That's pretty cool. Should be able to run a 2000w for the rims and something near 4000w for the hot eh? Is 2000w enough for rims for a 10 gallon batch?
 
phoenixs4r said:
Just red black and white unfortunately. There is 110 near by though, so as long as the march pump doesn't draw too many amps I should be fine as far as 110 goes.

That's pretty cool. Should be able to run a 2000w for the rims and something near 4000w for the hot eh? Is 2000w enough for rims for a 10 gallon batch?
Click to expand...

My rims is 1125w for my ten gal batches and that's plenty... If I did it again, or if I blow this one, I might go less. I'd start getting worried about scorching if I went higher.
 
Is that just keeping temp tho? I wanted to make sure I could step mash if I ever decide to do it.
 
phoenixs4r said:
Just red black and white unfortunately. There is 110 near by though, so as long as the march pump doesn't draw too many amps I should be fine as far as 110 goes.

That's pretty cool. Should be able to run a 2000w for the rims and something near 4000w for the hot eh? Is 2000w enough for rims for a 10 gallon batch?
Click to expand...

"Just red black and white unfortunately." Panels look grounded to me. Is the green wire running back to your main panel? The red and black wires are each a leg of 110v and the white is a common. I wouldn't run a separate circuit for your pump, Pending on the model of your march pump, they only run like 1.5amps max. Tap off the black(wire) leg in your control panel and the common to a 110v outlet you want to control the pump with. I run a 1650w ULWD element in my RIMS and 2 5500w elements for the BK and HLT with two pumps and I'm only running off a 40amp breaker. I am not running both 5500w elements at the same time of course. I'd go all electric if I was you, you have the power right there, all you need is a GFI. But that's just me.
 
zeus53219 said:
"Just red black and white unfortunately." Panels look grounded to me. Is the green wire running back to your main panel? The red and black wires are each a leg of 110v and the white is a common. I wouldn't run a separate circuit for your pump, Pending on the model of your march pump, they only run like 1.5amps max. Tap off the black(wire) leg in your control panel and the common to a 110v outlet you want to control the pump with. I run a 1650w ULWD element in my RIMS and 2 5500w elements for the BK and HLT with two pumps and I'm only running off a 40amp breaker. I am not running both 5500w elements at the same time of course. I'd go all electric if I was you, you have the power right there, all you need is a GFI. But that's just me.
Click to expand...

No, there's a lot of shady wiring going on there, if I took bigger pictures of the area you would see it. I bribed my electrician over to ttake a look at the panel for some beer lol. He told me due to age, I'm looking at more of a 30amp cap, and the manufacturer of the panel does not make GFCI breakers for it, so I'm guessing to play it safe, I'd run the output of this panel to a spa panel that folks talk about a lot on here?

What would be the smallest element I could get away with in a keggle HLT that can get 15~ gallons up to mash out temps in less then an hour?
 
phoenixs4r said:
No, there's a lot of shady wiring going on there, if I took bigger pictures of the area you would see it. I bribed my electrician over to ttake a look at the panel for some beer lol. He told me due to age, I'm looking at more of a 30amp cap, and the manufacturer of the panel does not make GFCI breakers for it, so I'm guessing to play it safe, I'd run the output of this panel to a spa panel that folks talk about a lot on here?

What would be the smallest element I could get away with in a keggle HLT that can get 15~ gallons up to mash out temps in less then an hour?
Click to expand...

A 4500w elements should heat to 150+ in less than hour. I know the 5500w can heat 12gals to 170 in 40mins.
 
nostalgia said:
According to my calculator, under ideal conditions it will take 59 minutes for a 4500watt element to get 15 gallons of water from 50 to 170F.

I use 5500's in my system, and that is pretty close to what I get.

-Joe
Click to expand...

Nice calculator...I definitely be using that.
 
Mighty fine calc, very accurate. 12gals to 170 using a 5500w= 38.6mins.
Sorry I was wrong, I said 40mins.
 

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