Sizz
Well-Known Member
I'm still in the process of gathering all of the components for a HERMS. I figure this is a good time to get advice on the design. This will be a single tier system, using insulated sanke kegs, 5500W elements, 2 pumps, and a BCS-460 controller. The following diagram illustrates the mash configuration. The pumps will have to be rerouted for sparging.
I decided to use a counterflow plate heat exchanger and a small RIMS style heater instead of the traditional copper coil in the HLT for two reasons. Immersion chillers are notoriously inefficient unless you have a large amount of water movement. I also didn't like having to heat gallons of HLT water to step up mash temps.
With this design, there is also a possibility of eliminating the HLT entirely and using the HEX as a tankless heater. My initial calculations look promising, ~28 minutes to increase the temp of 5 gallons by 120F, ideally. I need to read up on some RIMS threads and see if they do this.
The only concerns I have about this design is having grain stuck in the plate hex. I'll be using a duda-diesel plate heat exchanger which has good flow and I'm hoping enough space between plates to allow any grains to pass through. I plan on testing this soon by adding some crushed grain through the plate HEX and weighing the grain before and after to see if any got stuck.
I decided to use a counterflow plate heat exchanger and a small RIMS style heater instead of the traditional copper coil in the HLT for two reasons. Immersion chillers are notoriously inefficient unless you have a large amount of water movement. I also didn't like having to heat gallons of HLT water to step up mash temps.
With this design, there is also a possibility of eliminating the HLT entirely and using the HEX as a tankless heater. My initial calculations look promising, ~28 minutes to increase the temp of 5 gallons by 120F, ideally. I need to read up on some RIMS threads and see if they do this.
The only concerns I have about this design is having grain stuck in the plate hex. I'll be using a duda-diesel plate heat exchanger which has good flow and I'm hoping enough space between plates to allow any grains to pass through. I plan on testing this soon by adding some crushed grain through the plate HEX and weighing the grain before and after to see if any got stuck.