Electric brewery control panel build

[Hogarth]

I once ran an unsubmerged element for about fifteen minutes before noticing, and it still works fine. Could have roasted a chicken in there, though.

[Stoat on a rope]

Ha there's hope for us all then! It took some time to cool down too! At least I know my emergency stop works fine


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[Bunglebrewsbeer]

This looks top. Very jealous.


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[Kev888]

Looks very smart indeed, you must be very happy.

Most elements designed for water do overheat in air due to high watt-density, but if its still working theres a good chance that no truly serious damage will have been done. IIRC someone innocently, but thankfully briefly, tested their kettle elements dry (many years back) and they even glowed with no obvious ill effects. Demonstrated the value of a metal vessel, though.

WRT the ammeter jumping around, this can sometimes be due to a DC ammeter trying to read Alternating (or poorly smoothed) Current, but with digital (DC powered) ammeters it can also be because the power supply to the ammeter circuitry has ripple and needs better smoothing or regulation.

[Stoat on a rope]

Cheers, I brewed on Sunday and had no problems.

If I'm bored I might look at rectifying the ammeter but I can live with it for now. What I did notice was after the panel had been of for an hour or so the amount at which it fluctuated was greatly reduced, maybe only 1-2 amps instead of about 7-8 when it was first switched on. So most of my brew day it gave a reasonably accurate reading.




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[Bunglebrewsbeer]

What was the overall cost of the build?


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[Stoat on a rope]

I've got a chunk of it costed out but I lost track after a while, I'll sit down and work it out soon though and put it up here. Ball park I wouldn't be surprised if I hit £500 I bought and built all the parts over about 5 months to spread the cost


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[Bunglebrewsbeer]

Would really like one myself. But my wiring skills are of plug level at best.


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[Stoat on a rope]

I wouldn't say it was overly hard but some basic knowledge helps. Also you can follow the instructions on the electric brewery website word for word and not need to know a thing about how electricity works. It's when you start changing things that it helps to understand amps and wire gauges etc. Not that I knew anything, I've taught myself from the electric brewery site and threads on JBK.


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[Bunglebrewsbeer]

Deffo would like to go the all electric route one day and with something like this when I did.


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[patwestlake]

sorry to resurrect an old thread - looking at selector (on/off) switches for the elements and I'm struggling to find anything over 10 A - I want to run 3kw so need 16A switches and cannot find anything that doesn't look too industrial. Any pointers?

Pat

[Stoat on a rope]

I don't have any big amp loads going through the switches, the switches all control relays which in turn are correctly rated for the amp requirements of the elements.

It's by far the best way to do it, yeah it's a bit more wiring and some extra cost, but much safer/ don't need industrial switches.


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[beer taster]

I use 16A switches from Maplins but they do look a bit industrial