OK, you asked.
To me, when someone says "electric" the only thing that comes to mind is 240v power. You *can* do electric w/ 120v, but that's not where the promise lies. Speed and power are what 240v promises. Assuming you meant 240v, then you have to decide what you intend to do. Good on you for checking for issues related to it.
The biggest issue by far is cost. I brew in my garage; I ran 240v power into it last August and it was not cheap. I did some of the work myself, leaving the hard stuff for an electrician friend of mine to finish.
I bought the 6-gauge wire myself and installed it (with electrician friend's approval). Had to have a buddy help me as stringing that stuff through holes drilled in joists is not easy. IIRC, that wire cost circa $130.
Then a 50-amp or 60-amp circuit breaker in the main box to feed that wire. Can't recall which it was, but not a cheap replacement.
I had to find room in the main box to install that breaker so i was moving stuff around.
Then, once I had that wire terminating in the garage, coming through a rim joist, I had to run it up to a sub-panel. I could have terminated it right in a control panel but if I was going to all the effort to bring 240v to my garage, i was going to allow for other things.
So I bought the subpanel for about....oh, $35 or $40. Installed it then ran the 6 ga wire up into it, then proceeded to run wire from the panel to three applications:
1 30-amp 240v circuit to run the control panel for the BK.
1 20-amp 120v circuit to provide power for my chiller.
1 20-amp 120v circuit to provide power for my RIMS
So I needed 3 circuit breakers to run those from the subpanel. The 20-amp breakers were pretty cheap, each under $10. The 30-amp one, though, I wanted to be a GFCI breaker, and because I have a QO Square-D system, that set me back $103. Ouch.
I put GFCI receptacles on the 20-amp circuits so GFCI is provided at the outlets, not via circuit breaker. Those cost under $10 each as well.
I needed to add 10-ga wire from the subpanel to the outlet for the 240-v control panel, and to the individual 20-amp circuits. Can't recall exactly the price but it would have been around $50 IIRC.
So if you're adding this all up, at this point I'm over $500, including what I paid my friend the electrician (he's not that close a friend
). That's just to get power to receptacles in the garage.
******
Then I had this problem: how do I run wire from where it terminates in the sub-panel to the places I want to use it? I could go up and inside the attic of the garage, but dismissed that as problematic. I could come down from there inside the walls, but they're insulated, didn't want to disturb that.
So I built some wiring chases. That took time and roughly...maybe $35. I used standard-width boards so I didn't have to rip anything, and some hardboard to cover which I cut on a table saw. You can see that in the pics here, running from the subpanel up to the ceiling, and then down to the receptacles. It's hard to see in the last pic. You can see the penguin chiller (white), and the wiring chase running down next to the window.
I needed more 120v power in the garage anyway, so this all worked out just fine.
One additional consideration, which you'll see in a pic below....I planned for expansion in that subpanel, not knowing why but just because. Turned out to be a good thing as Menards had 240-v garage heaters after rebate that cost $63. I'm not kidding. Well, it didn't take long for me to realize that I had 240-v power there, so I took some BMX cable and wired it to the heater I hung from the ceiling.
Heat in the garage...who knew?
And...if I ever get an electric car, I have power in the garage to charge it.
***********
3-wire vs 4-wire. If you want to run 120-v applications from the same power source, you need a 4-wire 240v connection. Older 240-v applications were 3-wire, but to provide for 120v, you need a separate neutral wire for that.
Some homebrewers have access to a 240-v receptacle into which they plug their dryer. That's an easy way to gain access to the power without going through all the rigamarole--and cost!--I went through. It may only be a 3-wire though so that needs to be taken into consideration when thinking about a panel to control the power.
My panel allows for not only the 5500w element to be controlled but also two pumps on two different circuits. 4-wire was necessary to do that. Well, there are ways to kludge around this, but not and remain within most electrical codes.
*******
So now I have power, but the costs keep piling up. I needed a control panel and after a lot of dithering and soul-searching, bought a kit from Auber Instruments for use with electric BIAB. I don't do BIAB currently (but I have), but it would be just fine for controlling the boil and the pumps.
https://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=64_66&products_id=809
I built it myself; they have a table-top version called the "Cube" that's assembled, and you can get the DIY version I bought already assembled, will cost a couple hundred more to do that.
There's a cheaper controller called StillDragon which is also a kit, but it's very elementary. Costs $40 more or less, and only has a potentiometer to control, but it's a very inexpensive way to get where I got for $500.
You also need to add power lines and plugs to all this. In other words, how do you connect from the panel to the element? Or from the 240-v receptacle to the control panel? Those aren't cheap, expect to pay from $50 to $100 for them.
And none of this includes the electrical element in the kettle, the cost of getting a fitting to accommodate it, and perhaps even drilling the kettle.
[Interlude: it now seems like I'm doing everything I can to dissuade you from going electric. Not so, but you asked. There are lots of ways to cut these costs down if you're willing to work at it--dryer receptacle instead of running wiring, a Stilldragon controller, some other ways--but if you're really wanting the excellence of electric brewing, look at all of it. I know costs are an issue--I'm an empty-nester but 15 years ago, no way I could have done any of this. So it all depends.]
Now, all this is predicated on my situation; yours almost certainly is different. It's not to say "this is how to do it," but rather, this is how I did it. It's a consequence of space, resources, access to power, all that stuff.
Maybe, if money is dear, you can do this incrementally, starting with something like a Stilldragon controller and plugging into the dryer outlet (if that would work for you).
If I were to offer one bit of advice: plan for eventually getting to where you want to be, rather than making short-term incremental compromises. I also do powdercoating in my garage, in toaster ovens, and do that above the chiller in front of the window so we can run a box fan as an exhaust. Those toaster ovens chew up a lot of power, so I needed a separate circuit and outlet right there. So I can run the chiller and powdercoating ovens out of the same receptacle, and stop blowing breakers because the garage circuit can't handle it.
So...plan for what you want, not necessarily what you can afford right now, and allow yourself the ability to grow into it as time and resources allow.
My 2 cents. Hope that was enough.
Good luck!
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