Newby help

Mountain brewer · Joined: 26 Feb 2018 Posts: 13 Location: Durango

Hey there!
I appreciate all the work and effort you put in to help people like me build out an eBrew system. I switched the heating elements to the stainless ones.

As I design this and picture my brew day I am thinking I could make both the HLT and RIMS run on 110v?

Speed of heating for these two operations isn't so key. and only thing in my mind that truly needs 240 is BK. As it is with my gas fired system I start heating my sparge water 30-45min prior to end of mash. It seems I should have no problem getting my water to 180 by that time. any thoughts? I would really like to keep the amps down to 30 somehow. My service panel is in the laundry room adjoining the garage so I can just go straight through the wall with less than 10ft of 10/3 romex. Am I way off base or??????????

Once again coming from a Veteran and Flight Nurse/EMS I appreciate your help in my quest for the perfect beer.
Until I find it I guess I'll just have to keep practicing making great beers........lol

**kal** · Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:51 pm Post subject:

Mountain brewer · Joined: 26 Feb 2018 Posts: 13 Location: Durango

All right, you have convinced me to go with a HERMS system.
will these work for power relays?
https://www.grainger.com/product/SCHNEIDER-ELECTRIC-120VAC-6CVG4?cm_sp=Cart-_-Products_You_Have_Recently_Viewed-_-AZCART_67708&cm_vc=AZCART_67708&req=Products_You_Have_Recently_Viewed

I am going with a smaller enclosure and not going to have alarms or volt/amp meter.

**kal** · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 2:30 am Post subject:

No, those won't work. They're SPST.

If you plan on building to our standard 30A design (just simplified) I suggest you go through our plans and look at the specs for each of the parts you need. It's all laid out. Complete parts list here: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/parts-list-for-building
The control panel parts are near the bottom.

You can also just go through the control panel build build instructions. Start reading here: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel-part-1
All the parts and specs will be laid out.

I'm here to help, but with hundreds of parts required (and hundreds of brewers building at any given time), I don't have time to check every last part for someone I'm afraid. Sorry!

To help, I do give complete specs and places you can purchase from as well. For example, the 30A relays are detailed here:

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/30A-240V-DPDT-or-DPST-relay-with-120V-AC-coil

We can also sell you parts if you like, all tested and guaranteed to be the right parts, and guaranteed to work for you. It's also much easier to support someone if they use the parts we recommend and sold to them as we know what they're using.

Cheers,

Kal

Mountain brewer · Joined: 26 Feb 2018 Posts: 13 Location: Durango

Step one done. Three tiers on old tower are now one level. Third platform on right is hinged so it can drop away to save space in garage. 2 Blichmann riptide pumps are mounted and hard to see is a Blichmann Therminator plate chiller on the side. rest of electrics come next week. finally landed on a hybrid 240/110v system. HLT and BK and pumps will run on 240 system and RIMS system will run on seperate 110v system. So much fun designing the system and can't wait to brew my first batch on it. How much increase in efficiency can I expect? I plan on brewing my go to Double IPA that usually sits at 9%. I planned on brewing it the same as I always do and then measure but didn't know if there is a typical number.........?

**kal** · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 10:07 pm Post subject:

Mountain brewer · Joined: 26 Feb 2018 Posts: 13 Location: Durango

I am in the process of wiring and the heatsinks that I have chosen fit perfectly inside the enclosure. I would need to cut more on it to put them on the outside. I live in colorado and will be brewing in my garage. Can i put the heat sinks inside the enclosure or would they get too hot?

**kal** · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 10:25 pm Post subject:

Assuming you're building a control panel based on our design (same power usage, same size enclosure) I would not recommend putting the heat sink in the enclosure for the reasons you stated.

If power dissipation into heat sink is small enough and/or the enclosure large enough, this can work as it won't raise the ambient temp of the enclosure to any huge degree (there are calculations available for this) but with our high power SSRs and somewhat small enclosure, I wouldn't recommend it. You'll shorten the lifespan of the electronics (not just the SSR, but everything else in the panel).

Kal

Mountain brewer · Joined: 26 Feb 2018 Posts: 13 Location: Durango

Pressure tested RIMS system and auto tuned PID, seems like there is a 3 degree difference between RIMS outlet RTD and mash tun. Is this pretty normal? Granted I don’t have grains in it to help stabilize thermal mass.

**kal** · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 8:40 pm Post subject:

Possibly. You're doing RIMS and doing something different than what most of the people do here building a HERMS setup, so we can't really know if it's normal for you as we don't know exactly what you've built. It's certainly common. The temperature differential question comes up a lot. Here are some previous threads about it:

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25474
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26408
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28283
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25474
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30387
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26722

Things to consider:

- What kettles / false bottom you use (I use and recommend Blichmann)
- Mill gap setting / grist composition (I recommend 0.040 to 0.050" for recirculating systems)
- What the ambient temp is when you brew (Too cold and you'll lose heat faster in the MLT)
- Hose types and wall thickness (I use and recommend thicker walled 7/8" OD hoses instead the more common 3/4" OD. See: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/High-temperature-food-grade-silicone-tubing-1-2-ID-3-4-7-8-OD)
- Hose lengths (Shorter is better)
- How fast you recirc (I run two March 809 pumps both 100% open)
- Where your temp probes are and how you're measuring this (I recommend measuring on the MLT kettle output in a tee - complete details in my MLT build guide: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/mash-lauter-tun
- Any other differences to your setup (like RIMS vs HERMS, etc)

I know you're not building a HERMS clone of my design, but for those that did and had differentials, a few found that switching to the hoses and pumps and I recommend made the differential go away. From about a year ago:

Mountain brewer · Joined: 26 Feb 2018 Posts: 13 Location: Durango

First two brews are in the books. Triple IPA and a Hefeweizen. Thanks for all the help and advice. I have to say I love the setup.
I have modified it to run a 110v RIMS system and the rest runs on 240v.

**kal** · Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2018 9:10 pm Post subject:

Congrats on the new setup!

Kal