Electric Brewery's

[Scott H]

We spoke about creating a discussion so people who have or people who are thinking about and/or building can share pic's info and pitfalls to avoid.

Just about finished building my bench and hopefully will have a chance to start wiring it up this weekend. Pics to follow shortly.

[Scott H]

Mk 3 will be the final build into an enclosure further down the line when funds permit.

I have mounted the SSR's on heat sinks under the table as I was Able to find some terminal covers at the electrical wholesalers. Will test run the SSR's this afternoon with a heat probe attached to see what the temps get like and weather or not I need to add a 12v PC fan for additional cooling.

[Barry]

Great to see it fired up Scott, how is it working out for the actual brewing? Smooth sailing?

[Scott H]

I've only been using the one PID on the boil kettle only just installed the 2 sestos yesterday. Had a short test this morning but ssr heatsink temp is not making me happy so will be adding some cooling this afternoon when I get home and retesting. Otherwise all good holds a mint boil at 70% on a 8 sec cycle but think it will be better now with the ssr and 4sec cycles. Will be interesting to see how it goes with a dbl batch boil. How close are you to up and running?

[Scott H]

Ok so with a 80mm PC case fan set up for cooling the hottest part of the heat sink (the side opposite the fan) maintains <40c @ 21c ambient temp under 100% load at 75% it's less than 37c.

[Barry]

How big is the Heatsink Scott? Got a photo?

[Scott H]

like these ones http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&produc... hence why it doesn't quite cope. I think I'll upgrade them to 40A ones later on with a larger heatsink, but I'll keep the fans they were just a couple of pc ones I had left over from an old pc build.

[Barry]

Interesting, so are they inside the box? Or sticking out externally? 

I nearly got two of those ones but decided on a long large rectangular one. Hope it's enough!

[Scott H]

They are external I've mounted them on the underside of the table so free air flow wasn't great to start with. Should be good with the fans. I don't think you'll have heat issues Barry as your ssrs are only switching relays for the elements and not taking the full element load?

[Barry]

Nup, mine are pulsing the 4500W elements as the PID dictates. The mechanical relay is between the SSR and the element as a complete physical disconnect which is switched on both phase and neutral (DPDT) with my element selector switch. Identical setup to Kal's system.

You used thermal paste between the SSR and heatsink eh?

[Scott H]

Yup pasted em all up. I'll post a pic of how they are tonight. The heatsinks I have are only good for free air up to 15a.

[Scott H]

Just gonna get a bigger heatsink like yours barry and mount the fans at either end

[Paws Xa]

Does anyone know if there is an an ideal ratio of watts/litre of water to achieve a good boil?

I have a 4.5Kw element and tried boiling 65L of wort this weekend and was unimpressed with the results, The wort was definitely turning over in the kettle but the was not as vigorous as I think is ideal and my PID controller said I only manged to maintain a temperature between 99.0 and 99.5 degrees for the whole boil period. It was a cool day and the boil kettle is not insulated. 

Will upgrading to a 5 Kw element be enough to get a proper boil going?

And what kind of insulation can I wrap around it to minimise heat loss that can stand up to boil temperatures?