How many watts to boil 17-18 Gallons?

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Tiroux

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So I'm building my 15 gallons batch system, and since it's gonna be in my basement, I'm considering electric element, at least for the boil.

I will have 17-18 Gallons, so how many watts to I need to bring it to a rolling boil?
 
Whan you double your batch size the wattage nneded does not double because the surface area per gallon is less. A single 6000 watt element will work but to get to boil in reasonable time you could use more.
 
I use 7000 (2 x 3,500) and can heat 20 gals of water 2 degrees per minute. That said, I have a 55 gal HLT and heat the dough in & sparse water during the night before.

Cheers,
KY Dan
LAGERS/FOSSILS
 
It's all a matter of waiting a bit for 'ramp up'. I have two 5500 watt elements for my 20 gallon system. I ramp up with 11,000 watts but a roiling boil is maintained easily by about half power of one element.

And, if you begin heating as soon as your element is covered, while sparging, you'll probably not have to wait that much at all.

BTW, after years with LP, I'd recommend you move entirely to electric!
 
That's more than I expected but thanks guys! What I can find here is 3000 and 4500 elements. I'll probably go for 6000 or 7500W...

That said, I'm a real newb. I have a 20 or 30A breaker on 240v, what would be the limit of wattage I can plug in?
 
Tiroux said:
That's more than I expected but thanks guys! What I can find here is 3000 and 4500 elements. I'll probably go for 6000 or 7500W...

That said, I'm a real newb. I have a 20 or 30A breaker on 240v, what would be the limit of wattage I can plug in?
Click to expand...

W=VA. 240v x 20a = 4,800w or 240v x 30a = 7,200w
 
If you do a google search for electric-heat.xls you'll get a spreadsheet that can give you boil times based on initial temp etc.
 

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