Electirc brewing on 110 is it possible

See everyone brewing using 220 or 240 for electric brewing but I'm wondering if anyone has a 110 setup?

I do. I use a pair of ultra-low density 1500 watt elements plugged into separate 20 Amp GFI circuits. I will also throw in a 1000 watt bucket heater (on 3rd circuit) when I am feeling impatient. Once up to temp I can maintain the boil with 1 element. It’s faster than when I would only use my gas stove although it still takes a while. I do 5 gallon full boils batches.

I too got by with 120 volts for a while when living in a place with no 240 access. Some tips.

-Use the maximum wattage element you can without blowing the breaker
-Use a second or third outlet in your house to be able to run all elements at once, i.e. find which outlets are on different breakers, I did this with two long extension cords of the correct rating
-Consider using a HERMS system in which the pump cycles on and off to pull heat out of the HLT for the Mash tun. This allows you to heat the HLT to say, 175 F, then just recirculate mash when you need heat. Not ideal, but allows the HLT heating process to take place slowly on brew day, then the 10-15 gallons of hot water act as a battery when the mash needs heat, and the small little 120 V element can keep up with this leveled demand. You will have problems with step mashes, but a single temp mash works perfect.

It is very easy to switch to 240 later, do not let the 120V limit get you down, here is a look at my system, I recently switched from 120 to 240 V. The entire change over was about 15 minutes as i had to re wire one plug, and one controller power source. I also changed an element, but that was not necessary, just done to deliver more wattage to the HLT now that I had 240.

Cheers

I have been brewing w/ 110 for years, and just recently have done several 15 gal batches (18-19 gal boil) in a 20 gal pot w/ two 2000w elements. So, yea it's more than possible, it's actually cheap and easy. IME the lower wattage elements can be run simply at 100% w/out control...why throttle back a small element?

Heating times will be slightly longer w/ 110 than using a more powerful 220 / 5500w element, but very tolerable and perhaps quicker than propane or NG.

Here is a diagram that might help you:

As always - Click on the image to see a full scale diagram that is printable on Tabloid paper (11" x 17")



P-J

P-J...This drawing is most timely as it is almost exactly the way I am reconfiguring my current panel! Thank you so much for creating and posting your wonderful schematics as they are all easy to understand and amazingly helpful! 2 questions for ya:

1) what kind of switches are shown between the SSR's and load...?
2) what would you think of using a pair of these http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_31&products_id=250
as control protection for the switch?

Thanks again for all your work and help!

dpalme said:

See everyone brewing using 220 or 240 for electric brewing but I'm wondering if anyone has a 110 setup?

Click to expand...

Absolutely. And coincidentally I just posted a write up on my brewing rig. I included data on time to temp using two 1500v elements.

Here's the link:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/my-5-gallon-120v-ebiab-rig-build-pics-342786/

Here's how long it takes to heat tap water to strike temp:
Minutes Temp
0 80
9 110
13 118
17 129
22 142
29 163


Hope this helps!

Dude.... thats SLOW. You should be able to get up to that temp in half the time.. or less... Try using a lid and and or insulate your brew kettle....

seatbelt123 said:

Absolutely. And coincidentally I just posted a write up on my brewing rig. I included data on time to temp using two 1500v elements.

Here's the link:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/my-5-gallon-120v-ebiab-rig-build-pics-342786/

Here's how long it takes to heat tap water to strike temp:
Minutes Temp
0 80
9 110
13 118
17 129
22 142
29 163


Hope this helps!

Click to expand...

Jarrat said:

Dude.... thats SLOW. You should be able to get up to that temp in half the time.. or less... Try using a lid and and or insulate your brew kettle....

Click to expand...

It's insulated, 7 gallons. What's your rate?

29 minutes to strike temps seems reasonable...it takes me that long to measure and crush grain I guess....

wottaguy said:

P-J...This drawing is most timely as it is almost exactly the way I am reconfiguring my current panel! Thank you so much for creating and posting your wonderful schematics as they are all easy to understand and amazingly helpful! 2 questions for ya:

1) what kind of switches are shown between the SSR's and load...?
2) what would you think of using a pair of these http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_31&products_id=250
as control protection for the switch?

Thanks again for all your work and help!

Click to expand...

1) This switch would work very well and is rated for 20A @ 125V -
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/IDEAL-Toggle-Switch-4FRL6

2) Those contactors would be an excellent product for controlling the power to the elements.

You are more than welcome.

P-J

wilserbrewer said:

29 minutes to strike temps seems reasonable...it takes me that long to measure and crush grain I guess....

Click to expand...

Lol, after he wrote that I remembered it still takes 7+++ days to ferment so if I was really that pressed for time I'd just buy a bud.

I don't crush my grain so I use the short wait to organize other stuff and maybe get a drink.

BTW, I referenced you in my build thread. The bag is great! Thanks for your help!

The first real concern is whether or not you have enough wattage to do the job and enough space in your panel if you want to add to it. IMO, 2000W is about perfect to boil 6-7 gallons for a 5 gallon batch. 4000W is about perfect for a 10 gallon batch. If you go with these wattages in a keggle you should not need a PID or infinite, switch, PWM, etc. to throttle your elements.

I wound up installing a few 20 amp breakers in the panel and then running each one to a switched gfci outlet. Worked great. I've since upgraded to 220V as it's just less wiring when you are planning a control panel. Having to run 4-5 20 amp circuits to a panel, or having to turn each element off with a switch can become a pain once you start adding pumps, ventilation, RIMS, and upgrade to 10 gallon batches. But if you're just looking for something that works, hey, 120V will get the job done just fine.

110 is nice since you don't have to rewire anything, but if you are going to spend the money on a brew system, I'm thinking you might as well go all out. That's where I'm at in my design phase.
PS - I might be hitting up some of you NC guys for some help!

I brew 10 gal batches on 110V. Total brew day is ~6-7 hrs. Faster if I had a better immersion chiller. It's all about time management. I crush while heating for sparge, clean the mill / organize hops during the mash, then clean the mash during the boil. Beers come out nice with no DMS or scorching from judges. I use 2 high density 1500W elements on separate GFCI circuits. Good luck.

I've been brewing with 120v for the past year or so. Yeah, I'm designing a 240v rig now, but 120 allowed me to go all electric much, much sooner than if I did the bigger build now. I pretty much ignored everyone that said 'why do it twice?' and I'm glad I did. Only downside is an extra hole in my keggle when I go 240, or I can sell the BK to someone else when I am ready. I'd much rather sort things out before I build my control panel and now I can learn in increments rather than sweat out a build with no beer in my keezer.

I've just started using my BCS for control of my boil elements, and have often wondered how it would be done with a BCS and two 120V inputs. Cool thing is BCS has 6 PIDs--I am sure with some programming this would be possible.

In the meantime, if anyone is interested...here's the heating curve for 6 gallons using 2 x 2000w Camco HWD elements (Home Depot) running at around 112-115 input voltage. (ignore the blip at the front-that was before I turned on pumps)

As you can see, this was done in the winter with groundwater in the high 50's (during the summer, heating takes about 5-7 mins less)

So, about 25-30 mins to strike for a 5G batch; and about 40-45 to strike for a 10G batch.

All home kitchens have been wired with two separate 120V, 20A circuits since the early 70's. This makes it easy to run two 120V elements in a brew pot - you plug one in one side of the kitchen and the other one plugs in the other side. This is more than enough to boil 7 gallons.

Or you can do what I do - I put my brew pot on my electric stove, which isn't up to the task of bringing 7 gallons to boil or maintaining a boil in 7 gallons, then I plug the 120V, 1650 watt element I installed in my brew pot into my boil controller. Once I reach boil I leave the stove eye on full blast and adjust the boil rate with my brew pot boil controller. Works great every time!

@shroomz

Nice write up and chart. Looks like the extra 1000w you have over my rig helps reduce your heating time (though I'm perfectly happy with my system).