Electricity for that boil????????

Hey Folks,

been pondering an indoor brew setup. I have been doing all-grain for three years now, and love it. I have a bango burner that works great for my boils. (I usually do a 90minute boil, and I guess-timate a cost of $4-5 dollars worth of propane per boil).

I had thought of setting up a big pot with built in heating elements (2-3 1500watt 120volt elements) in order to heat mash water, sparge water, etc.

In theory, you could use such a device (not hard to build) to do the whole boil.

At first I dismissed the idea thinking it would be more expensive than propane.
But my math seems to say that it would be cheaper

lets say 4 elements, 1500 watts each (1.5kw). That is 6Kw. For a two hours of heating you would, in theory, use 6kw X 2hour, or 12kw/h. Around here, a KWH is 11 cents, so you are looking at $1.32

Anyone tried this? The question is, of course, how long will it take to get to boiling.

There's a whole section of the forum dedicated to electric brewing, you'd probably get some more information over there.

Didn't know!! thanks!

I think Walker yesterday said he figured his costs of his all-electric rig at $1.25 per brew. I haven't figured mine, but I know it's cheaper than propane! I used to use 1/2 tank of propane for a brewday, whether it was 5 or 10 gallons.

I currently use a 5500w element in my HLT and a 4500 w in my BK, and I've seen no rise in electricity in my household bill.

That is awsome!! I just finished a room in my basement for my 'brewery' - indoor electric brewing here i come!

How long would it take to boil 7-8 gallons with 4500w element (I guess that's 220)???

Yooper said:

I think Walker yesterday said he figured his costs of his all-electric rig at $1.25 per brew. I haven't figured mine, but I know it's cheaper than propane! I used to use 1/2 tank of propane for a brewday, whether it was 5 or 10 gallons.

I currently use a 5500w element in my HLT and a 4500 w in my BK, and I've seen no rise in electricity in my household bill.

Click to expand...

My experience has been exactly the same. And one, 5500 watt element can get 14 gallons of liquid to a HARD boil, no problem.

If you're curious about times and power usage, check out the calculator at my website. It's assuming ideal conditions, but it should be fine for ballpark calculations.

E.g. to get 14 gallons from 150 to 212 should take around 25 minutes.

-Joe

thanks!