Hlt voltage

[Ramdough]

Hello all.

I am building a system that was inspired by Kal, but is different. On my system, I will be able to boil one batch while brewing a second. The heaters are electrically independent and I was planning on running more current capacity to my control box.

I am using keggles for my kettles. I am curious if everyone recommends running the HLT heater off of 220 or 110?


Thanks in advance.

 

[Bobby_M]

No question about it, you want 240v with 50 or 60 amps coming in to the box so you can run dual 5500 watt elements.

 

[ChuckO]

I'm with Bobby_M, 240 to the box, however I split it down to 120v for my HLT and for my RIMS though and only use 240v for the boil. Each of the elements is a 5500w 240v element, HLT & RIMS run at 120v. It's a matter of thinking through your planned process and setting it up accordingly.

I don't do back to back brews and don't worry about the time it takes to get the HLT to temperature. I only heat the sparge in the HLT, the strike water is put into the MLT cold and heated by the RIMS. The larger volume of sparge water is hot by the time the mash is finished.

 

[Bobby_M]

It helps to write out a typical back to back brew session in terms of how much water is needed when so you know how much power you'll need and how much time it will take. The tricky thing about that second batch is that you have no boil kettle to collect the wort in so what's your plan? Hold it in buckets until the sparge water is all out of the HLT?

 

[Ramdough]

So, the plan is to time the start of the second batch to be ready to boil when the first batch boil is finished, so I can just pump the first batch through the cfc then immediately fill and boil the second after minor cleaning.

 

[Ramdough]

I'm with Bobby_M, 240 to the box, however I split it down to 120v for my HLT and for my RIMS though and only use 240v for the boil. Each of the elements is a 5500w 240v element, HLT & RIMS run at 120v. It's a matter of thinking through your planned process and setting it up accordingly.

I don't do back to back brews and don't worry about the time it takes to get the HLT to temperature. I only heat the sparge in the HLT, the strike water is put into the MLT cold and heated by the RIMS. The larger volume of sparge water is hot by the time the mash is finished.

I never thought about doing it that way.

Do you get the mlt up to temperature before adding the grain?

How long does it take to get the mlt water up to temperature?

 

[Ramdough]

So to be clear..... I have enough power available to have 60+ amps running to my system.

I have 2 wavy 5500w ulwd elements (boil and HLT) and one straight 5500w ulwd element for PWM controlled Rims.

My only drawback is the $100+ power cord I did not want to buy.

Trying to decide if it is worth the extra money for more amps at the brewery.

 

[ChuckO]

I never thought about doing it that way.

Do you get the mlt up to temperature before adding the grain?

How long does it take to get the mlt water up to temperature?

When I brew a 10 gal. batch, the mash uses about 5.5 gal., and takes less than 1.5 hours to get to strike temperature. This is with a 5500 watt element run at half voltage, so it is actually 1375 watts. I heat the sparge water in the HLT and the strike in the MLT, both starting at the same time. The larger volume of sparge water is ready quite a bit before it is needed at the end of the mash.

I built my control panel with 50 amp service, even though I am running 8250 watts maximum for heating plus a couple of pumps. Gives plenty of extra capacity for the future. Go ahead and buy the power supply cable for the largest power draw that you can plan for. It's better to spend a little more once than have to spend a lot more upgrading later.

If I were to do back to back batches, I would clean the MLT and refill both the HLT and MLT for the second batch during the first batch boil. Then I would go ahead and start heating the second batch. By the time I had the first batch in the fermenters I should be able to dough in the second batch.

I should work out a Gantt chart for my brew sessions and see how to dovetail a back to back brew session into a typical day.

 

[petey_c]

Ramdough, Are you buying a pre-made power cord or making it yourself? For 50/60 amps you'd need 6/4 SOOW cable ($5.64/ft at my local HD, but $3.40/ft at wire and cable to go.com http://www.wireandcabletogo.com/6-4-SOOW-Portable-Cord-600V-UL-CSA.html .) I don't know what their shipping/handling costs are though. Are you going to install a receptacle, or hard wire the cable directly to the breaker (2P 50A). Good luck, Pete

 

[Ramdough]

I plan to hard wire the box, so soow is overkill. To hardwire I am looking at 40 ft or so to the sub-panel. I guess I am being cheap right now.

 

[petey_c]

6/3 romex is less than half the cost of SOOW. At 40' that's a good savings. Better to keep it your pocket than someone else's. I always say I'm not being cheap, I'm being fiscally responsible. Let us know how it works out. Cheers, Pete

 

[Ramdough]

Thanks Pete.

I am leaning towards running two 10/3 Romex right now because it is significantly cheaper and I can buy drop from my friends wiring project.