Number and placement of Temp Sensors

[CorgiBrew]

For a single-tier, three kettle electric HERMS system, how many temperature sensors are you using and where are they placed? Clearly, I need one for the HTL so the PID can hit the mash in and sparge temps. Should there be another one after the HEX controlling the pump that is circulating the mash? I understand that you really don't need one for the BK, using the PID to control output in manual mode.

 

[Bobby_M]

I understand that pump switching was pretty popular in the earlier automated systems but I'm pretty sure a lot of people have converted to constant recirculation.

You can run a PID in manual for the BK but you have to have a probe connected anyway.

 

[CorgiBrew]

I understand that pump switching was pretty popular in the earlier automated systems but I'm pretty sure a lot of people have converted to constant recirculation.

You can run a PID in manual for the BK but you have to have a probe connected anyway.

Yeah, the guy at Auber said you can also use a dummy probe for the BK to make the PID think there's something there.

So, with constant pumping you'd only need a single probe on the HLT, right? If you were step mashing on a system like that, would you turn off the pump while you ramp the HLT up to the next step, or would you let it run during ramp-up too?