20 Gallon boil electrical requirement

[nealperkins]

I am hoping you can help me as I S L O W L Y move toward converting my B3-2050 (20 gallons) to electric.

I wonder how much wattage I need to accomplish my goal - I am not very patient, so the minimum just won’t do!

Let me ask if this might work. I would mount one 5500/4500 element in the HLT and augment that with a 240v 5500/4500 heatstick during ramp up.

For the boil kettle, I would prefer to not mount the element would ramp to boil with 2 240v 5500/4500 elements and maintain with one.

So, would this generally work?
Would a 4500 element maintain an adequate boil; or, 5500?

Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

[stevehaun]

How big are your batches? Are the kettles 20 gallons or are your batches 20 gallons? Big difference in terms of required energy. Personally I am not a fan of heat sticks, especially a 240 vac, 5500 watt heat stick.

 

[samc]

great resource for these kinds of questions http://gnipsel.com/beer/software/calculators/electric-heat.xls

 

[SporkD2]

I have 1 5500w element in my BK now and I can bring it from mashing temps to boiling in under 10 mins. Two elements would be plenty overkill for boiling esp. because once it start to boil you dont even need half of a 5500w element to maintain it.

 

[nealperkins]

The kettles are 28 gallons total capacity. I can squeeze out about 22 gallon batches.
So, I am looking for experience with 20 gallon batches. And, I don't like waiting.
Thanks

 

[Chefkeith]

I use a 5,500w element and I am VERY satisfied with the results. So much so, that I have no desire to put anymore wattage into my brew kettle. I figure that the small decrease in heating time isn't worth the extra time spent cleaning additional equipment/elements.

Also, I'm not a fan of heatsticks.

 

[stevehaun]

I think you will be pushing it to do 20 gallon batches with a single 5500 watt elements. Chefkeith and SporkD2 - how big are your batches? If you are impatient, you should acquire a 50 amp GFI breaker and install two 4500 watt elements.

 

[nealperkins]

Thanks for the input.
I may not be a fan of heatsticks (?) but, I'm thinking cleaning would be a whole lot easier if I could just pull (1 or 2) heatsicks out of the BK. Still thinking on that (and listening). Or, maybe mount one and insert the other, dunno yet.

 

[wyzazz]

Check out Airbalancers 240V Heatstick, it's what I'll be using.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ultimate-heatstick-240-volt-116049/

 

[nealperkins]

Thanks.
I've seen this and like it a lot. I guess I'll have to work on the necessary welding, drilling and tapping. Do you have a facility for this part of the operation?

Hello 'someone' out there...business opportunity. I can't weld, but I can write a check. No kidding...

 

[wyzazz]

I found a machine shop down the road that drilled/tapped the endcap for me. Airbalancer was nice enough to weld up everything else after I shipped it to him.

 

[wyzazz]

Nostalgia also did something similar without welding...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/heatstick-doom-start-wiring-qs-171288/

 

[SporkD2]

I do 10g batches with a single 5500w element and from room temp to boil would take a while. Since your really only going from ~160 to boiling a single 5500w element would get you there in 20 mins. Plus since I batch sparge I can start heating the BK during mash out so by the time my last running are in the BK im almost boiling anyways.