Suggestions for an electric burner stand?

[bernerbrau]

What the title says. Anyone have any recommendations for a standard 120V plug-in electric burner stand that can get 10 gallons to a boil from room temp relatively quickly?

(Re-post from here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/suggestions-electric-burner-stand-300894/)

 

[iijakii]

There is no such thing.

 

[bernerbrau]

Care to clarify? Which part of my request is unrealistic?

 

[iijakii]

Well on 120V you really can't boil more than 5-6 gal with an immersed element. So that right there blows your plan out of the water.

As for a prebuilt electric burner, here's a recent thread over using induction burners. There are many other threads as well. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/1800-watt-induction-boils-how-much-wort-285320/

 

[wildwest450]

Unfortunately, I think iijakii is right. That's way too much water for 120v.

 

[bernerbrau]

Rats. Well, I suppose having to run 240 conduit to my back patio and garage wouldn't be the end of the world, except for the hole I'd have to put in my foundation. I'll check out the induction burner thread for ideas.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Unfortunately, I think iijakii is right. That's way too much water for 120v.

But two 120v 20a circuits can bring 4000w to the party

 

[bernerbrau]

So I'm running the numbers (q=mcDt), and it's 12.5 megajoules to boil 10 gallons of room temperature water. With 100% heat transfer (immersion) and zero heat loss, 8 kw can boil 10 gallons in half an hour.

So... is it possible to get 8-10 kw out of 240VAC?

 

[iijakii]

How many amps do you have available?

One 5500w element draws nearly 23 amps (5500/240). You can run that and a pump, switches off a 30 amp dryer plug for instance. That's more than adequate for 10 gallons. If you have 50amps at your disposal you can run a 5500W in both the HLT and BK for instance.

 

[bernerbrau]

How many amps do you have available?

How do I find that out? Is there a primer I should be reading?

And is there a way to do this without immersion, at least to start?

 

[DeafSmith]

How do I find that out? Is there a primer I should be reading?

And is there a way to do this without immersion, at least to start?

Handy numbers to know:
1 kW = 3412 BTU/hour
1kWH = 3412 BTU
1 BTU is the energy required to heat one pound of water 1º F
1 gallon of water weighs approx. 8.33 pounds at room temp. and approx. 8 pounds at boiling.

To find how much current you have available, look at the circuit breaker for the circuit you are using. Most people try to limit usage to 80% of this value, but I don't really know what is required by code.

If you don't want to build a kettle with an immersed element, you could take an electric stove and rebuild it as I did (lot of work, but I'm very happy with it):

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/lives-stovezilla-born-177317/

 

[DeafSmith]

A couple more useful numbers:
For water:
Latent heat of fusion = 334 kJ/kg = 143.9 BTU/lb
Latent heat of vaporization = 2260 kJ/kg = 973.6 BTU/lb

Using this last number, we can find the power required to boil off 1 gallon in one hour =
(973.6 BTU/lb)(8 lb/gallon)(1 kWH/3412 BTU) = 2.28 kWH or 2.28 kW applied for 1 hour just to boil off a gallon of water.

 

[bernerbrau]

So it sounds like electric is a ton of work to set up, whether via immersion (running 240vac lines, drilling holes in kettles, learning to weld, etc.) or external heat (dissecting an entire electric stove (!!!)).

You guys who do electric, is the ROI really that significant over regularly swapping out tanks of propane?

 

[iijakii]

It's all about brewing indoors.

 

[bigdongsr94]

For me its also control. DeafSmiths giving you some great info but it may be making you a little resistive to the idea. I have put two 2 - 2K 120VAC elements in the side of my 44 qt kettle and it works great. These are at HD for like $10 bucks. Now, take this with a grain of salt (or whatever people say). A lot of people say they get scorching using these cheapy heaters. I dont. I moved some things around in my breaker box to free up two 20 Amp breakers. I installed GFCI outlets right under breaker box. I moved my brew area so i need to run these on extension cords and I am overrated on the extension cords but they dont get more then warm and I am present the whole time.
You dont have to weld anything.
If I had easy access to my box to install cleanly a new 220 line, I would. Hammer drill will put a whole in that wall and then close it up with some spray foam or something. Thats just me though.

 

[bernerbrau]

With the heating elements mounted directly inside the brew pot, how does that affect stuff like stirring the wort (melt the spoon maybe?), inserting the immersion chiller during the last 15, or the false bottom and stainless steel scrubber I've already got in there to filter out pellet hops and break material?

 

[bigdongsr94]

The heaters are under the false bottom. I think it's kind of the standard electric setup. I am sure there are write ups on the forum.

 

[I_B_Mongo]

But two 120v 20a circuits can bring 4000w to the party

That's what I do too. I'm considering building a 3rd heat stick so I can start doing 10 gallon batches in the basement. The way it is now, if I want to do bigger than 5-6 gallons, I've got to drag out the 'ol propane stand and steal the LP tank from the grill and set up in the garage/driveway.

 

[bernerbrau]

So I've got a 30 amp circuit for my washer/dryer and a 50 amp circuit for my stove.

I was planning on replacing the electric stove with a gas stove anyway, so that could free up a dedicated 50-amp line...