How Much Electric

I will eventually go to all electric brewing... but that will be a future project. But for the mean time I am finishing my basement and part of which I am setting aside part of the storage area for my brewing. So my question is how much electric should I run over there? At a minimum I will have one 30 amp 220v circuit for the boil kettle and one 20 amp 110v that I will use for my fermentation fridge, and I may other outlets off of it in the brew area for running pumps, etc.

So should I run another dedicated circuit for brewing? Either a 110v 20amp or another 220v 30 amp? I don't want to over do it if it isn't needed but I have an easy oportunity to do so if it would be a good idea. What would you do?

one 220 should work, I'd add at least one more 120 outlet It's much easier to add one now than snake it through later.

B

I would run a 220 circuit for more than 30 amps, I would put in wiring for 40-50 amps (you can put in a 30 amp breaker but if you need more power you just have to swap the breaker out, and the hard part is running wire anyway.

I would put in another 110 volt circuit, and put in at least 2 outlets on each circuit. Include space for things like a radio, or computer.

Also don't forget lots of lighting, I find most people don't put enough power for light in when rewiring things. Put lighting on its own circuit, and put in plenty of fixtures. Think how hard it is to tell if something is clean if you are fighting shadows.


Just my 2 cents from the perspective of someone who had to re-rewire there house.

I agree with running wire for a 220V 50A circuit. If you ever convert your HLT to electric and want to run both at the same time for something like back to back batches, you will need the 50amps.

if your short on cash you can always run the wires in the walls from breaker box to your desired location and if at a later date you need the outlets you just need to add a breaker and install the outlet, I have done this in my basement when I built my house just use blank cover plates over the outlet box.

sonex said:

if your short on cash you can always run the wires in the walls from breaker box to your desired location and if at a later date you need the outlets you just need to add a breaker and install the outlet, I have done this in my basement when I built my house just use blank cover plates over the outlet box.

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Its really the cost of the wire that is the issue. 10-3 wire is about $100 for a 50' length and I'm probably going to need just a little more than that. Yeah, the cost of copper has really gone up. I might run 8-3 wire for more amperage later... its weird though, I'll have to actually go check the physical store, but online at homedepot the 8-3 wire is cheaper than the 10-3 wire (both copper), so I'll definatly go that route.

Thanks for the tip on the lighting, I'll definatly go more than less for that.