The elephant in the room that noone mentioned to the OP yet unless I missed it is... are you aware of the power requirement of such a large element? I'm not sure if this is a hypothetical design excercise or if you really have to build it but you're looking at a large 240v breaker.
My 2 pole 50 amp 240 volt breaker fits in my panel it's no wider than the 20, 30 and 40 amp 2 pole breakers. As far a high cost for large amp GFI breakers I paid after tax $48.92 for a GE 50 amp 2 pole 240 volt GFI breaker, THQL2150GF1. This thu Ace Liquidating Company a coupe years ago. They buy end of job extra electrical materals off construction sites at a low bid offer. Not only new but used breakers all tested before sold.
Boby_M, yes i'm aware of the power requirements of two 5,500 watt elements on at 11,000 watts when heating up. Not a single element like you posted above, a single 11,000 watt element would be a whopper. This is for a future planned system build not a just a hypothetical design exercise as you stated above.
slnies; Yes i'm wanting some BTU's heating for my system going electric heating but nothing compared to the 120,000, 180,000 210,000, 240,000 plus advertised rated BTU output burners that sound like a aircraft jet engine roaring many propane heated systems forum member use and stated using a 15.5 gallon keggle for 5 or 10 gallon batches. Those "overkill" 11,000 watts times 3.41499 converts to 37,564 BTU's and that's at 100% efficiency which will be a little less for sure like a 5% loss. I want to be able to heat and net a full 15 gallons for 3 corny's after the fermenter with a large volume boil keggle. I hate those long wait slow temp rises that I have read about on this forum and seen in operation.
Looking at the 37,564 BTU's times 95% efficiency of 35,686 BTU's looks rather small compared to all the propane burners BTU ratings
that are advertised.
As mentioned above why not go to 31 gallons, that's too large for my needs, wants and design. The 21-22 gallon MLT and boil kettles size will allow me plenty of head space above the mash and boil kettles liquid level when a 18-19 plus gallon mash volume is required. I did see a AG demo brew at a LHBS that used those 50 litre MLT and boil pots that had less than 1/2" from the top of pot with only 1/4" liquid above the grain bed then attempted a fly sparge resulting in a lot of liquid on the floor. A quick opinion was made on that system. The same manufactured 50 litre imported boil pot was used with little head space left with a boil over that followed. Another AG different LHBS with keggles I watched a Russsian Stout with a big grain bill filled to the MLT's brim, again my opinion go larger for big grain bills if that is what you like to brew. That would include me. After this second viewing I knew I would not be happy hence coming up with a 21-22 gallons design of total volume I came up with for more MLT and boil volume plus head space. My thinking it would be nice to be able to boil 19 plus gallons down and still have 16 for the fermenter. Later to fill 3 corny's with 15 gallons total not a partically filled third corny. This capacity of a brew system would allow me to make full 15 gallon net, 10 or 5 with this design. Larger manufactured kettles are way to expensive for my liking why pay hundreds of dollars on something I can make as I have the kegs besides the larger diameter of these pots open surface area vs a 10" or 12" opening cut on a keggle maintaining a smaller volume of boil off within what is needed.
I have a larger GFI breaker available if needed free besides #12 to #2/4 SOO cord handy, a couple hundred feet of each size in storage.
Welders and brewing system will take up a large amount of the large size S00 cords, I had future plans when I took these free cords home. The pack rat in me.
Below not related to OP thread reply just something I just wanted to add;
The cords were a free for the asking at the end of a 3 1/2 year job. Temp power SOO cords just dusty from car and truck exhaust in ventilation ducts 7' x 22' cement over time. As many as 7 runs x two tunnels over 3,900' long each were yanked out with a tractor and headed to the scrap yard. A state Cal/Trans highway job where time vs cord value wasn't an issue, they, Cal/Trans already paid for the SOO cords. On a multi million dollar job over 100, cords were not an issue. I collected what I wanted before it was ripped out into shreds. I took many loads to scrap with the companies 5 ton truck with my crew. Over $83K in SOO cord alone not counting the #12 to 250 MCM removed the year before for "$47K in scrap. The company wanted half plus the cost of the diesel used. Best part we were paid on company time then split the money amongst the crew. This only after the crew was scaled way down, a little greed kicked in with the original foremen and crew members. My share went to a new 251 Mig w/30A gun and two 280 cu/ft bottles owner owned for the Tig and Mig, kids college bank accounts, family Hawaiian vacation plus $2,500 for homeless battered mothers in my town. I'm not a total cheap bast**d / A-hole it comes from the heart. Easy come easy go plus karma. To spend my money on a high dollar manufacrured brew unit is where I draw the line, no way.
Moderators, if this is way off forum topic and needs to be removed do so I respect your opinions.
