Wort chillers

[Gary G]

So here I am again picking brains
I made beer for about 20 years and never used a wort chiller I simply boiled the wort the put into the fermenter and then left it overnight to cool before adding my starter yeast. Now I never in all that time had a bad brew. So I am reading about wort chillers and one of the reasons to chill the wort is to avoid unwanted infections ???? How do you get an unwanted infection in a previously sterile medium if it is protected by a filter? Anyway I am not paying 80€ for

I have never used a wort chiller and my brews have always come out great. I really pay a lot of attention to my sanitization process.

 

[CDS]

I have one, but calculated that I was dumping 20+ gallons of tap water to cool my wort. I switched to pulling from my pool so the heat and water weren't wasted until the pool had to go. Since then, I've been doing a modified no-chill where I leave everything on the burner until the next morning, transfer to my fermenter and add yeast.

I hated the water wastage too, but largely solved that by getting a $30 800 GPH aquarium pump. Now the bulk of the water is just recirculated from a 5-gallon bucket of ice water.

 

[jambop]

I hated the water wastage too, but largely solved that by getting a $30 800 GPH aquarium pump. Now the bulk of the water is just recirculated from a 5-gallon bucket of ice water.

I plan exactly the same thing although in the summertime the cooling water can be used to water the veg garden all our summer used water, where possible, goes on the garden.

 

[corkybstewart]

The thing about electricity generation in France is that most of the electricity generated comes from nuclear power stations. That is why in France you actually sign up to a set level of wattage entering the house. For example our house has a 9kw max draw anything more than that trips the breaker. It has to be that way because the power suppliers have to know what the max demand will be... nuclear is like that it takes time to ramp it up. Things like cookers draw a lot of current and have to be on their own circuit. The higher the level of incoming wattage the higher the cost of the agreement. An all in one system would be fine at my house it is on par with an electric kettle wattage wise less than 2kw. It is weird for example we could not have an electric shower and our hot water storage heater is 600W and takes all night, about 5hrs, to reheat while we sleep when electricity is cheaper... I hesitate to say cheap... sorry thread drift !

That may explain what the electrician was getting at when we remodeling the house. My father in law had a wood working shop with Industrial sized equipment. For instance a 30 inch wide planer and 72 inch bandsaw. We eliminated that and dropped our power one level but since my French is limited to daily existence I really didn't understand. I just wanted to be sure we had enough power for our stove with 2 ovens

 

[Golddiggie]

I plan exactly the same thing although in the summertime the cooling water can be used to water the veg garden all our summer used water, where possible, goes on the garden.

Be aware, the initial water coming out of the chiller will be HOT.

I'm on a well for water, so I have no issue with using what's needed to chill the wort. Plus, with the efficiency of the plate chiller, I'm running the chill water for a handful of minutes (less than 10). No city charges for water, or waste water treatment, is a nice thing. I'm hoping my next place is also on a well.

 

[Mad Mann]

With my closed system I don't have any water waste. I have Pex tubing in the ground connected to a cooler and a pump.

 

[davidabcd]

The best/one of the best ideas I've seen here was recycling the hot water back into ice water with a pump. The pump price would be well worth it.
Currently, I'm supposed to send the "used" water through a hose and out to the garden so it's not a complete waste.