Boiler power control

[The_blue]

Interesting. I see they also do 2kW and 3kW versions now (the latter needing a heatsink adding) and the price has gone down a bit too.

Looks like you have the ideal mounting position there in the base of your boiler.

Have you noticed any problems with mains interference? When I tested mine, I could pick up interference from all the sockets in the house while it was running. I guess that may not matter, depending where/when you brew, but I think I'll need to do something to fix it.

I didn't notice anything but apart from the computer and monitor little else was on.

[Hogarth]

Oh, wait, the one I linked to above does need a remote filter. This one doesn't.

Hogarth could you confirm that it is this One you bought and are using? UNITED AUTOMATION - QVR-TB-RFI - POWER REGULATOR

Cheers

Hi Barneey. Yes, that's the one I bought.

[barneey]

Thanks for the quick relpy, anyone know if its better to get the 15 or 17 amp one?

Cheers

[Mark's Brew]

Hi, I hope you don't mind me jioning the thread, I am looking at changing from propane to electricity for my brewpot, I have saved an old domestic copper HWC & was planning on fitting a 3kwt element & was looking at what was available to control the temperature (being a skinflint I was looking for a thermostat that could also act as a temperature controller for fermentation) & came across this on e-bay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220V-Digital- ... 27c103e2fd

I think it will need a solid state relay as well to handle the power for the boiler but if I conect it to a socket then it could be used to control an electric blanket that I wrap my fermenter in.

the only problem I can see is the power would be either on or off, no fine tuning, I suppose it could also be used to control mash temperature.

I would value any comments.

[jonnyt]

For £14 you can get the same item with a 30Amp relay fitted

[Dr. Dextrin]

I think it depends on whether you want to control temperature (like during the mash or fermentation) or the vigour of the boil. For controlling temperature, a thermostat of some sort is indeed what you want.

But when boiling wort the temperature will always be somewhere pretty close to 100C so a thermostat won't work well. What you really need is something to control the amount of power going in. That's easy with gas, but a little trickier with electricity. For this, there seem to be four approaches:

1) A simmerstat that mechanically turns the power on/off fairly rapidly (but unfortunately usually too slowly to maintain a steady boil).
2) An electronic system that does the same, but a bit more rapidly to keep the boil steady.
3) A variable transformer (variac) of some sort (high power versions of these can be very expensive).
4) A phase angle controller, of which there are several types.

I think until recently (1) was the most likely choice, but (2) and (4) seem to be becoming more attractive given the increasing availability of cheap components.

[Mark's Brew]

[quote="jonnyt"]For £14 you can get the same item with a 30Amp relay fitted[/quote]

is that on e-bay as well?

[jonnyt]

Yes on ebay, mine came in 4 days from China!

[Blue Sky]

For £14 you can get the same item with a 30Amp relay fitted

is that on e-bay as well?

30A Digital Thermostat

Mark, have a read of this thread... 13A/3kW Controller?

[jonnyt]

Mines been used last week flawlessly, switching a 2.2KW Argos kettle element

[Parabolic]

Ok, so i bought one of these and was just coming on here to tellyou about it when i found this thread..

I'm 30 mins through a test water boil and as said above have fiddled till it was just boiling.

The major differece for me is i havn't faffed about with it. No heatsink swap...


My build is is a 30 litre tea urn.I've pulled out all the old wireing and drilled a hole in the plastic base. I mounted the unit as it cam into the base and added live to one post and the element to the next. The neutral goes direct to the element and the earth to the metal body.

Thats it. my whole build.

The fuse listed above costs more than the unit so i'm not bothering. The urn had no internal fuse so i'm using the plug (and an RCD).



Fingers crossed!

does anyone else see the ghost in the background?

[Hogarth]

does anyone else see the ghost in the background?

Yeah, I saw it too, but I wasn't going to mention it.

[Dr. Dextrin]

Tsk, tsk, I thought distilling spirits wasn't allowed on Jim's.

[Parabolic]

Tsk, tsk, I thought distilling spirits wasn't allowed on Jim's.

[The_blue]

does anyone else see the ghost in the background?

The Ghost of christmas past!

Or maybe my work fleece on the door handle..

You decide