Kauri Road Brewery 2.2
Tiny bit more progress tonight saw my making holes in my stainless pots for the electric elements.
Massive thanks to Guy Gibson for the lend of the chassis punch, legend.
I'm doing these following theelectricbrewery.com's instructions to the letter – 2 gang metal junction box, faceplates either side, 32mm hole through a faceplate on the back, element, oring, washer on the outside, lock nut on the inside. Unsurprisingly looks like it'll be perfect.
The hold up has been waiting for some stuff to arrive from Amazon – 3 weeks overdue. Bah. Finally arrived this week so the holes are done. I'll do the rest of the work with weekend, but the end of it I should have elements all wired up.
Punch on outside:
Punch on inside:
Punch through:
Hole!
And the other one:
Cheers.
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Comment by Scott H on February 28, 2014 at 4:12pm
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Or will it be just to work relays?
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Comment by Barry on February 28, 2014 at 4:16pm
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The switch merely switches the coil on a 30A rated relay.
Have a good read of theelectricbrewery.com's control panel, there's a good diagram on this page that shows how the switch only switches the relay.
I'll be using low amp switches, lights, PIDs, etc as it's only the main power analogue relays, SSRs and of course wiring and outlets/plugs that need to be high rated to take the big currents.
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Wasn't sure if you were doing an exact copy.
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Yeah it's definitely not a copy as such. I'm leaving some bits out because of the lack of HERMS, but also making some improvements – combining switches and lights into lighted switches, using 240V stuff all round so no need for DC transformers, combining volt and amp meters.
First phase controller build will definitely be future proofed – leaving room for PIDs and alarm switches should I want to add them later.
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Comment by Tilt on March 1, 2014 at 12:09am
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Sweet - good to know about your power set up. I'm getting my shed wired sometime and am keen to future proof it for a possible switch to electric brewing.
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Yeah @tilt, a dedicated circuit is about all you need, preferably with some heavier wire – at least 4mm. That might be the only undoing of my plan, my circuit is the old hot water tank circuit (we switched to gas). I need the sparky to check the wire gauge for suitability and then take it off the pilot line and put it on its own breaker. If it's not heavy enough my plan B will be to run a lead directly from the switchboard :)
Got to get it off the pilot circuit because the power cos like to switch that off frequently, sucks in the middle of a boil eh!
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@baz, its more than likely that your old Hot Water cable will be marginal, most water heaters are run in 2.5mm nowadays with older ones only been run in 1.5mm. (Unless your old HW was a massive beast) the 2.5mm will handle 20A but thats it anything else would be over rating the cable. Going up to a 25A supply will be your best option IMO.
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Yeah that was my sparky's initial thoughts also. I had a quick look and it does indeed look like 1.5
Might be plan B eh.
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Comment by Druid on March 3, 2014 at 7:34pm
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My electrician had a look and recommended that I tap my stove circuit for my 4kw element - the breaker will pop if the stove and kettle are going at the same time but the basic premise is safe and solid. I use another circuit to run the 2kw element in the HLT
Plus, it was a good deal cheaper to set up than getting a dedicated circuit installed.
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Comment by Peter Smith on March 3, 2014 at 7:39pm
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the issue druid is if the breaker doesn't pop for any reason the wiring will melt...
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