Electric Heating Elements

[Luke Watkins]

Hi All,  I am new to the forum, so sorry in advance if this has been covered in another post.

I am in the process of building a 3x 50L Keg HERMS system.  What sort of electric elements have most others used that are easy to obtain in NZ?

I have looked at the elements on theelectricbrewery.com and they seem overkill on wattage for my needs.  Ideally I would like to keep the required wattage down so I don't need to up spec my supply.

At the moment I am looking at this and maybe the 3600W version.

http://www.5stardistilling.net/element-guard-2400w/

Thanks

Luke

[Des Ross]

I have an all electric 3 vessel HERMS setup. 2400 w elements would be struggling even with the kegs well insulated. A 3600w element would ensure a vigourous boil in your kettle but if you wanted to use the HERMS to do a step mash, the same element in your HLT is going to make temperature increases a very slow process! I use 5.5Kw elements, with a power controller ( DIY kit from Stilldragon) on the kettle and a simple Sestos PID controlling the HLT, but you require an upgraded circuit for this. Even 3600w really needs a 20 amp dedicated circuit. You could look at 2 x 2400 elements in each keg with each element plugged into different standard circuits or go just electric for the HERMS and gas for the kettle? Of course if you were only doing 20L batches and not targeting 40L, the single 2400w element may JUST work.

[Nathan]

Hey Des......I have just done building a herms setup but I have made a separate Heat Exchanger rather than using my HLT It holds about 7-8 liters and has 2400w element in it, I have tested it on water and its fine do you think it will be ok when I add grains to mix? 

[Des Ross]

Hi Nathan...I would think the mash grain would add to thermal mass and so hold heat as opposed to water on its own, so it should work well. I reckon the ammount of surface area provided by the HERMS coil and the speed of circulation would be more limiting factors...eg how big a coil you are able to get in your dedicated pot.

[Nathan]

The coil i have used is just what I had lying around its only about 7 meters, But looking around other sites and doing some extensive investigating this seems to be about right,......Cheers for the reply I never thought about the grains adding mass gives me new thought process.

Maiden run hopefully next week 

[Des Ross]

Younwill really be looking forward to brew day! Exciting times....all the best!