Power 1 and/or 2 Anvil Foundries at 240 from a 30 amp 240 spa panel

[David Coy]

I bought a 3 vessel herms system that included a spa panel to provide GFCI protection. The system needs work to be made functional. I had an electrition install the spa panel in my garage but haven't had time to get the control panel working. The spa panel and herms system have 14 - 30 4 wire connections.

In the mean time I've found my self the happy owner of both a 6.5 gallon and a 10.5 gallon Anvil Foundries which I have been brewing on at 120v in my kitchen. I'd like to take advantage of the 240 in the garage when the temperatures aren't too extreme and brew on the 240 circuit.

Short Circuited Brewer has a video about powering an Anvil with 240 through it's existing 120 v plug without swapping out the plug with a DIY power cable solution.

Would it be possible to build a power box that can hook into the spa panel and power, at 240 v, one, or even two, 120 v recepticles for the foundries to plug into? Like in the Short Circuited Brewer's video this would allow me to keep the foundry plugs as is for brewing in the kitchen still where there is nice access to water and drain.

It seems like it should be possible. After all it's not really different than powering two elements in the herms system.

What I'm not sure about, though, is how to transition from the foundry 3-wire 120 v plug to the spa panel's 14-30 four wire setup. Short Circuit's video has the 240 side on a 3-wire 6 40 plug.

Would there need to be fused protection from over voltage to the two foundry power supplies?

Would the spa panel's GFCI be suffiecient protection for the Foundry connections?

 

[doug293cz]

First, you should not wire a 120V outlet for 240V, as there is a risk someone could plug a 120V device into the 240V, and that is dangerous. If you want to run your Anvils on 240V, then change the plugs, or make pigtails. If making pigtails, it is better to put 240V plugs on the Anvils, and a 120V plug and 240V receptacle on each pigtail. This eliminates any possibility of accidentally plugging a 120V device into a pigtail connected to 240V.

You can add 120V outlets to your spa panel, as long as you have a neutral coming from your service panel to the spa panel. You wire 1 hot, neutral, and ground to the 120V outlets. If you have two 120V outlets, your best option is to wire one to hot 1 and the other to hot 2, as this reduces current if you use both outlets at the same time. You will have to add a couple of 20A GFCI breakers to the spa panel to protect the 120V outlets from over current.

Fuses and breakers do not protect from over voltage, only from excess current, and ground faults if it is a GFCI breaker.

Based on your questions, it does not appear that you have the knowledge to safely do this wiring job by yourself. Find someone knowledgeable about structure wiring to help you. A licensed electrician is always a good choice.

Brew on

 

[David Coy]

Thanks for the reply Doug, I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Ok, I replace the existing 120 Anvil plug with a 240 plug and then build a pig tail with 240 recepticle and 120 plug for kitchen use.

A few questions still come up.

The existing plug I have for the foundry is three wire and my spa panel is four wire 14-30 recepticle. What I can find on replacing the 120 plug on the foundry has the replacement 240 plug set up with two hots and the ground (one of the hots connected to the anvil's 120 wire's neutral). What is done for the common wire connection on the 240 side of plug? Do I just leave that blade out of the plug?

Just as a GFCI breaker at the main panel would protect an outlet downstream, I assume the GFCI protection at the spa panel is GFCI protection for the new plug as well. Is that correct?

Given that the 30 amp rating of the spa panel can power the 12 amp load of the Foundry at 240 volts, could the spa panel power two separate 240 volt outlets for two foundries? I could then simultaneously brew a 3 gallon batch on the 6.5 foundry while brewing a 5 gallon batch on the 10.5 foundry.

I'll attach the Foundry's manual guide for 240 wiring. It's not very helpful.

 

[whoaru99]

The Foundry manual tells you what you need to know/do to convert the unit to 240V. It's not intended to go in depth for what goes on beyond their power cord.

There may be other ways to the end game, but this way is the approach I'd probably take for a distribution, albeit not inexpensive.

It facilitates two GFI-protected 15A 240V circuits and two GFI-protected 15A 120V circuits. GFI protected, presuming the source/supply for this distribution contains a properly connected two-pole GFI/breaker device.

Of course, the wires and receptacles need to be properly enclosed, etc., etc., but gives an idea of the wiring/method.

 

[David Coy]

Thanks! That's even more than I was thinking of doing. Don't know if I'll add the 120v outlets or not, but that's pretty much what I was looking for.

Thanks for the informative picture!