Alternative Energy Electric Setup

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HatcherBrewer

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This is purely a hypothetical question, but something that I have thought about and researched a little bit...

Would it be possible to build a 240v electric setup that is run off of a battery bank that is recharged using a solar panel trickle charger relatively cheaply (around $500 not including element controls)? Assuming that you'd need an inverter, voltage regulator, batteries, panels...and some other stuff (not sure what). It would probably take quite a few brew sessions to pay for itself...but think of how cool it would be to tell your friends that your beer was made using solar power!
 
I'm under the impression that it's way better to just run solar panels into the grid rather than trying to fool with batteries. That is, if you are just trying to brew with BYO power and don't need portability. Batteries are expensive, use a lot of heavy metals, and don't last forever. You'd just have to calculate the net power gain/loss for both.
 
HatcherBrewer said:
This is purely a hypothetical question, but something that I have thought about and researched a little bit...

Would it be possible to build a 240v electric setup that is run off of a battery bank that is recharged using a solar panel trickle charger relatively cheaply (around $500 not including element controls)? Assuming that you'd need an inverter, voltage regulator, batteries, panels...and some other stuff (not sure what). It would probably take quite a few brew sessions to pay for itself...but think of how cool it would be to tell your friends that your beer was made using solar power!
Click to expand...

If it was that cheap to do, I think that a lot of larger breweries would be doing this already. I looked in to supplemental solar power for my home a few years ago, it would take around 20 years to pay for itself in my neck of the woods.
 
It would be possible on a small (very small) scale, I think. A scale in which electric elements power your brewery. But there is a point at which a steam jacketed kettle is necessary. When you start having to use other fuels besides electric power for brewing, what's the point. Having said that, there are several wineries throughout the world that are partially or even sometimes fully powered by solar panels (well, they draw during harvest and feed back during down times, so a net gain.). The only difference is that they don't have to brew anything. It's not unusual for those systems to be in the million dollar+ range.
 
Try wind power.
For the generator itself, the cheap ones are about $1 per watt.
Opposed to solar, the cheap ones are about $4.50 per watt.

It will still run you close to $5K though if you are off the grid...
Batteries are very expensive, copper is too.
To run a 4K-5K W element for 90+ minutes, you will need large battery bank wired at high voltage (48V+).
 
If it weren't so messy I would be using wood to heat with. cheapest it will get if you don't count your labor for cutting and stacking.
 
Solar panels, batteries, inverters all have too much inefficiency. Why not build a solar collector withttubing inside a box painted black? Using a heat exchanger, you may not get full boiling temps but I bet it was big enough and you had a hot day you would get pretty close. Many not need much extra heat to get where you need. I have thought about this for a while...
 
  • Buy a used golf cart. 48V from 6 or 8 series-connected batteries, more current than you can use (i.e., typical golf cart motors are about 3.5 HP or 2500W)
  • Build a keggle with 3 1200W elements wired in parallel.
  • Connect the motor connections to the parallel elements.
  • Use the golf cart's throttle mechanism to control the power to the elements. The motor controllers on those things are PWM to gate drivers for large MOSFETS.
  • Mobile brewery.
 
ryclo said:
Solar panels, batteries, inverters all have too much inefficiency. Why not build a solar collector withttubing inside a box painted black? Using a heat exchanger, you may not get full boiling temps but I bet it was big enough and you had a hot day you would get pretty close. Many not need much extra heat to get where you need. I have thought about this for a while...
Click to expand...

I have an old sliding glass door in my back yard.
I have thought about doing something like this:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Batch-Solar-Water-Heater/

On a hot day it supposedly can get to near mash temp (150F).
If not, it can be used for hot cleaning water.
 
Yeah, I guess using batteries and inverters would probably be pretty expensive...looking at some of the deep cycle batteries and one of them would about blow a $500 budget. The solar oven/giant magnifying glasses are great, but I don't think our sun angle and or lack of sunlight in the winter would make it a year round type solution...hence the trickle charger. One can always dream though...maybe in 20 years.
 
SankePankey said:
I'm under the impression that it's way better to just run solar panels into the grid rather than trying to fool with batteries. That is, if you are just trying to brew with BYO power and don't need portability. Batteries are expensive, use a lot of heavy metals, and don't last forever. You'd just have to calculate the net power gain/loss for both.
Click to expand...

This makes sense to me. Now that there are a lot more electric homebrewers has anyone else looked into this?

If you take pricing out of the equation (to a reasonable extent) would it be possible to run a 220v 30amp brew rig on solar power?
 
rollinred said:
If it weren't so messy I would be using wood to heat with. cheapest it will get if you don't count your labor for cutting and stacking.
Click to expand...

I had enough cutting wood growin up, I swore I'd heat with anything BUT wood if I could help it. I remember every summer gettin the saw goin, and getting the wood splitter going, oh and the wood splitter was ME!
 
This is just a very rough guesstimate, but suppose you run your 5500w heating element for a total of 2 hours on brew day. 11kwh of power consumption. It would take the average 3kw home solar system a bit under 4 hours to generate that power. A 3kw system will run you about $14k without installation.

If you are powering your home with the same solar system you just ate about half of your production for the day.

So it's doable if you are grid connected, but you are still going to be running a deficit and buy power on brew days.

If you start thinking off an off grid system it will get completely crazy with battery requirements to support brewing and a household.
 
Wow, I was imagining if it was $4k it wouldn't be as bad but $14k is definitely getting up there. I guess I'd only be brewing a couple times a month and the system could power the rest of the home the rest of the time but it'd take quite a few years of power bills to make up the difference.

Still would be a really cool project.
 
Use a Fresnel lens to heat up rocks and dump them into your kettle. Probably the simplest most cost effective solar powered brewery you could get!
 
You can put your brewery in my black car in the summer. I've pegged a kitchen meat thermometer at 180 on a 120 degree day.




Thisisanonnegotiabledealinvolvingswitchinghomesallsummer
 

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