Noob Electric Brewer with questions

I have been lurking here for several weeks and I have learned a lot just by reading everyone's posts.

I have a question for you electric guys out there. I am thinking that I am going to build myself an electrical set up but I have a couple of questions. What kind of outlet(s) will I need? I am planning on brewing in the basement and need to wire a new outlet but I do not know if I should do a 20A circuit, or will I need a 30-amp one? I want to wire it for 220V service but if I use a 20A circuit, what type of outlet should I use? I know that there are several ones available and was wondering what is more common. If anyone has pictures of their setups that would be helpful.

I am planning on only brewing 5 gallon AG batches right now. I do not have any plans on moving up to larger batches so I was thinking of just wiring up 20A circuit, but wanted everyone's opinion before I do.

Thanks
Dennis

You're asking the last question first. What wattage will your heating elements be? Once you know this, you can determine the ampacity of your circuits, and then what outlet/plugs you will use. You probably will end up using an outlet designed for electric ranges or clothes driers, at a guess, but you need to start at the hot end and work backwards to design your system.

If you're doing an electric boil, you'll need at least a 30 amp 220 circuit. a 5000W 220v element will pull about 23A. A 5500W element will pull 25 amps. If you can work within 30 amps, I would use a NEMA 6-30R receptical. You can google it. I'd also recommend using a GFCI breaker on the circuit since it will be an element submerged in water. I'd probably go ask a local electrical supply place if you're unsure what you need.

OK I guess I forgot to mention the heating element wattage. Sorry about that. I have not built mine yet, but I was thinking of using a 3800W element. Do you think that this will be too small? What do most people use 3800W or 5500W?

I guess that would bring me to another question, do you think it would be better to mount the element directly to the kettle or would I be better off building a heat stick?

I also forgot to mention this but I will be using a GFCI no matter what. I don't want to kill myself.

You can use the formula P=U*I to get an idea (even if it isn't 100% accurate on AC)
So that would be I = P/U = 3800/220 = 17 AMPS
So I = P/U = 5500/220 = 25 AMPS

I have been researching this quite a bit because I am in the middle of building an electric system right now. I won't comment on which element you should use because I think that is really up to you. What I will say is if you decide to use a 3800w 240v element you could get away with a 20 amp circuirt. If you went this way you could use a 20 amp AC outlet and cord. This outlet looks like a 20 amp 120v outlet only the sideways side is on the oposite side. That said you might be better off running a 30 amp outlet and splitting it out in your control box.

I hate to toot my own horn but in January I posted a very detailed post on how to build a Electric Kettle that I am now using. You might want to look at that post before reinventing the wheel. About half way down the post is a download link for the plans. If it doesn't work and you are interested PM me with your email address and I will send it out to you.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/electric-kettle-instructions-100737/

TD