Breakers, whats the norm?

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Brewer Gerard

Brewer Gerard

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Hi folks,

Just starting a new brewery build. 3 vessel all electric 230V system with as much automation as possible. Anyway i'm hoping people could post a list of your breakers specifying current rating and what they're for. The more lists i get the less chance there is i'll leave something out when doing the distribution board.

Thanks in advance:mug:
 
These days most all electrics are fed by one 30 Amp or one 50 Amp circuit. And the breaker in the main panel will be whatever series the panel calls for.

If you are running a new circuit for your brewery and your electrical panel will handle the load, consider running a 50 Amp wire & breaker. A 50 Amp capacity will let you run more things at once.
 
That's great cheers. I already have the main breaker on the sub distribution board spec'd at 32A(GFCI). Now i have to see how i'm going to break it down for the different bits that i'll be powering. For example i was going to use a single 32A breaker for powering the elements in the HLT & BK and have a speperate 20A/16A breaker for the element in the HEX tank in the herms loop. Maybe people just use one GFCI for their entire setup i don't know. I just thought a few posts with a list of breakers for simlar setups would be a good start. I was thinking along the lines.

Mains GFCI 32A(GFCI)
Elements 32A
Pumps 8A
Sockets 16A/20A
Lights 8A

If there was a few posts put up in this format then i could see what kinda hardware people were powering and how they were protecting it all
 
Most of the builds I've seen on here are done the same way - one large breaker at the main panel (30A or 50A... mine is a 50A) that then runs to a stand alone GFCI Spa panel (rated to the same normally, so mine is again 50A) and then to the panel. From there, some opt to not run separate breakers, though I have chosen to run 3 - two 20A dual pole breakers, one for each heating element, and one 15a breaker to run all my 120V equipment (pumps, PIDs, etc). The smaller loads I'm concerned about are protected via fuses.

-Kevin
 
Brewer Gerard said:
That's great cheers. I already have the main breaker on the sub distribution board spec'd at 32A(GFCI). Now i have to see how i'm going to break it down for the different bits that i'll be powering. For example i was going to use a single 32A breaker for powering the elements in the HLT & BK and have a speperate 20A/16A breaker for the element in the HEX tank in the herms loop. Maybe people just use one GFCI for their entire setup i don't know. I just thought a few posts with a list of breakers for simlar setups would be a good start. I was thinking along the lines.

Mains GFCI 32A(GFCI)
Elements 32A
Pumps 8A
Sockets 16A/20A
Lights 8A

If there was a few posts put up in this format then i could see what kinda hardware people were powering and how they were protecting it all
Click to expand...

It's good that you already have a GFCI breaker in the panel, you don't need another one downstream.

And as far as load goes, stick with a 5500 or 6000 Watt element and 30 Amps should be fine. For example:

22.9A - 5500 Watt element (25A for 6000 Watt)
0.3A - Flourescent Lighting
0.6A - Pump motor
0.2A - Any control electronics you may design or buy
??? - Whatever else you decide to plug into your 20A sockets, won't be much
​
 
Cheers for all the feedback. As i've already said i am installing a sub distribution board in the shed intended for brewing. This will be fed from the main board in the house so i think i'll put a 32A GFCI here and have all the regular breakers in the sub board.

Cheers again:mug:
 

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