After seeing how much more comfortable an electric system can be, I'm debating installing one in a spare corner I have available in a room behind my detached garage.
I can most likely get some 220V outlets installed where I want them, but I'd rather not install a water line and or drain (in the realm of possibility, at least the drain, water faucet would be more difficult).
I started thinking about if I could use a glycol system along with large enough water supplies, but am not sure if that's really feasible. A chiller big enough to be able to cool a batch down to 50 for a large seems to be massively expensive (I know that I would need to run a two step system in order to not damage the compressor).
My idea would be to use a two cooling tank strategy, one with 6-8 gallons, the other with 10. I'd turn on the chiller right as I start brewing with the hope of bringing it all down to 45 or so. Once the boil is complete I'd circulate the larger tank through my Wort cooler, while also keeping the chiller loop for that one going, then once a 10-15°F approach is reached swap the chiller and Wort cooler to the smaller tank to bring it down to final temp. I figure this could be done in about an hour using a 4,000 BTU chiller.
Has anyone done this before? I figure I'd also reduce my water waste significantly, which I guess would be a good thing as well.
I can most likely get some 220V outlets installed where I want them, but I'd rather not install a water line and or drain (in the realm of possibility, at least the drain, water faucet would be more difficult).
I started thinking about if I could use a glycol system along with large enough water supplies, but am not sure if that's really feasible. A chiller big enough to be able to cool a batch down to 50 for a large seems to be massively expensive (I know that I would need to run a two step system in order to not damage the compressor).
My idea would be to use a two cooling tank strategy, one with 6-8 gallons, the other with 10. I'd turn on the chiller right as I start brewing with the hope of bringing it all down to 45 or so. Once the boil is complete I'd circulate the larger tank through my Wort cooler, while also keeping the chiller loop for that one going, then once a 10-15°F approach is reached swap the chiller and Wort cooler to the smaller tank to bring it down to final temp. I figure this could be done in about an hour using a 4,000 BTU chiller.
Has anyone done this before? I figure I'd also reduce my water waste significantly, which I guess would be a good thing as well.