JJWP
Well-Known Member
ok, so I know this info must be out there somewhere, but after weeks of reading the forums and also reading through the Kal instructions end to end, my head is spinning, and I'm not finding quite what I'm looking for. Hoping someone can help me out and get me started on the right track to building a (relatively) affordable and safe simple electric build.
I'm planning on going the the spa panel route in the basement. I have existing 30a 240v dryer hookup to run off of. I plan to convert my HLT and BK into 5500W electric using Kal's directions exactly.
For my panel, I cannot afford doing anything close to the full Kal route. For the most part, those panels seemed to be mostly filled with "nice to haves", not "need to haves"? The timers and lights and meters are all really cool, but they don't seem to be really required, right?
All I really want is the ability to have one PID control my elements, one at a time. My pump I am totally fine with just controlling separately, as it is already wired up for 120V and has a switch installed. Why do so many people wire their pumps into their control panels anyways? Is it just convenience?
Equipment I already have:
- 3 converted keggles - HLT, MLT, BK. All have (or will soon have) weldless ball valves, analog temp gauges, recirculating ports at top, sight gauges. MLT has a homemade slotted copper manifold for filtering. BK has a bottom pick up dip tube off the ball valve.
- one March 309 pump, bronze head. Built into a toolbox with 120V switch wired into it
- 40 plate chiller, inline analog thermometer
- all fittings are camlock QDs
Planned Brew Day Steps:
1. Fill HLT with strike volume, bring to strike temp (accounting for next step heat losses)
2. pump strike water into empty covered and insulated MLT.
3. Mash in
4. refill HLT with sparge volume -bring to mash temp and activate HERMs to maintain mash temp
5. raise HLT/HERMs temp to mashout
6. Switch hoses and drain mash to BK
7. flip PID controller switch to control BK and begin heating first runnings to boil (maybe dial to ~200F)
8. switch hoses and pump sparge water into MLT
9. recirculate for ten minutes, then pump second runnings to BK
10. bring to boil
I may go ahead and build a two tier stand so I can fly sparge, but not sold on that idea, I've been quite happy with single infusion batch sparges for years now, and have never really played the efficiency game - sparge method doesn't really impact the electrical planning I think...
My primary question for you all: what is the best way to run two 5500w elements (only one ever on at a time obviously, due to electric service limitations) off of one PID? Is it possible to have:
- both elements plugged into a control panel
- control panel has one PID, and controlling HLT or BK is switchable between this PID via a manual switch
- what do I use to throttle boil so that it doesn't go nuts?
Any advice much appreciated! I've attached a quick drawing of how I envision this being roughly laid out. Thoughts? Obvious drawbacks? What am I missing here? Thanks!
I'm planning on going the the spa panel route in the basement. I have existing 30a 240v dryer hookup to run off of. I plan to convert my HLT and BK into 5500W electric using Kal's directions exactly.
For my panel, I cannot afford doing anything close to the full Kal route. For the most part, those panels seemed to be mostly filled with "nice to haves", not "need to haves"? The timers and lights and meters are all really cool, but they don't seem to be really required, right?
All I really want is the ability to have one PID control my elements, one at a time. My pump I am totally fine with just controlling separately, as it is already wired up for 120V and has a switch installed. Why do so many people wire their pumps into their control panels anyways? Is it just convenience?
Equipment I already have:
- 3 converted keggles - HLT, MLT, BK. All have (or will soon have) weldless ball valves, analog temp gauges, recirculating ports at top, sight gauges. MLT has a homemade slotted copper manifold for filtering. BK has a bottom pick up dip tube off the ball valve.
- one March 309 pump, bronze head. Built into a toolbox with 120V switch wired into it
- 40 plate chiller, inline analog thermometer
- all fittings are camlock QDs
Planned Brew Day Steps:
1. Fill HLT with strike volume, bring to strike temp (accounting for next step heat losses)
2. pump strike water into empty covered and insulated MLT.
3. Mash in
4. refill HLT with sparge volume -bring to mash temp and activate HERMs to maintain mash temp
5. raise HLT/HERMs temp to mashout
6. Switch hoses and drain mash to BK
7. flip PID controller switch to control BK and begin heating first runnings to boil (maybe dial to ~200F)
8. switch hoses and pump sparge water into MLT
9. recirculate for ten minutes, then pump second runnings to BK
10. bring to boil
I may go ahead and build a two tier stand so I can fly sparge, but not sold on that idea, I've been quite happy with single infusion batch sparges for years now, and have never really played the efficiency game - sparge method doesn't really impact the electrical planning I think...
My primary question for you all: what is the best way to run two 5500w elements (only one ever on at a time obviously, due to electric service limitations) off of one PID? Is it possible to have:
- both elements plugged into a control panel
- control panel has one PID, and controlling HLT or BK is switchable between this PID via a manual switch
- what do I use to throttle boil so that it doesn't go nuts?
Any advice much appreciated! I've attached a quick drawing of how I envision this being roughly laid out. Thoughts? Obvious drawbacks? What am I missing here? Thanks!