Question About Evaporation

[robthefrog]

Let's say I have a pot of water boiling. If I turn up the heat, does the amount of water that's evaporated increase or stay the same?

I'm wondering this because I'm wondering if I get my wort up to a boil and then turn the flame down to where it's keeping it boiling is just saving me gas or if it's also keeping more water in my boiling pot.

 

[Snicks]

All of the increased heat after boiling is directly going into energy for evaporation, so yes increasing the heat would increse the evaporation rate.

I usually always turn my gas down just enough to get a decent boil to save gas, you need to account for these changes to reach your final volume, usually by trial and error.

 

[Walker]

the harder the boil, the more steam you generate. so, turning the gas down saves you gas and boils off less water.

 

[robthefrog]

Thanks, guys! I used a new burner SQ-14 Bayou Classic last night. It was my first experience with propane, and I was extremely impressed by how fast I was able to boil water. (I come from a stove top background.) I usually buy 6 1 gallon jugs of water from the store, and I noticed that I just barely hit the 5 gallon mark in my fermenter when all was said and done. I should probably work on turning the gas down more to keep a nice rolling boil to conserve a little more water.

 

[robthefrog]

Mini-Review of My First Noob Experience with the SQ-14:

Things I liked:
Getting the air mixture was a bit finicky, but I got a nice blue flame.
I did an extract brew (5 Gallons). 10-15 Minutes to get up to a boil, 1 hour boil. I used 3.2 pounds of propane. I was told to expect 3-4 brews out of a 15# propane tank. So this seems pretty dead on. There was very little noise in my opinion. I expected more noise.

Things I didn't like:
Why do they insist on painting the damn thing where the flames are going to just burn the paint off?
I had to use a make-shift wind screen out of a cardboard box to maintain an efficient flame.

 

[Walker]

Things I didn't like:
Why do they insist on painting the damn thing where the flames are going to just burn the paint off? .

So that it's not rusty when you receive it.