Home Voltage?

[1971hemicuda]

I'm extremely interested in using this device for my homebrewery! However, i have a question..

The SSR you recommend is a 240v 25 amp relay. I'm planning on using this at home where i only have a 110/120v 15 amp circuit. I'm going to use a hot water heater element for my HLT...120v 1650w element. Am I in any danger at all? as you can tell, i'm SO not an electrician...so i'm just curious. Or, do you recommend upgrading to a 240v circuit?

[gbrewer]

It looks like you will draw just under 14 amps. The relay mentioned will handle up to 240v at 25 amps. Just remember when you run the relay with a water heater element, you will generate heat within the relay. You will see lots of posts within this forum that discuss what people have done to combat the heat.

The only danger I see is that you could be using 14 of the 15 amps for that circuit. (In simple terms) Allow room for pumps (usually .7 amps) and any other devices which may be connected on that circuit.

The BCS460 will do a great job for your home brewery no matter what kind of heat source you decide.

[BCS Portland]

You really need to upgrade your circuit to 20 amps to carry that safely. New breaker and new wiring if it is not the correct size wire.

[1971hemicuda]

Based on all your reply's....I might see what it would cost to have an electrician come in and just upgrade the circuit to 240v 20amp. I'm going to have 2 pumps, a wireless access point, and a few other things as well.

Thanks for the reply! I can tell you this is definitely going to be the solution I go with when I start my build in about a month. Great product!

[jmdenmark]

Since you are considering the 240V circuit, I would suggest making it a 30A circuit with 10-3 wire (2 hot, 1 neutral & ground). Depending on the type of system you implement you may quickly find yourself craving a higher wattage element and the 5500W elements draw 23A. If you are doing the circuit as new anyway, you won't regret having the flexibility in the future and assuming the distance from the panel to the brewing area isn't too far it won't add much to the budget. For that matter, even 50A/6-3 would be nice but maybe overkill depending on your situation and other panel demands.

Hopefully you know the electrician very well, they tend to get nervous when you tell them what you plan to use it for (water, stainless steel and electricity don't mix) so ensuring he takes that into account with regard to ground, GFCI and good wiring practices for the controller end.

I'm not electrically inclined either but there are plenty of good resources here and on the homebrewtalk forum for electric brewing. I will be posting an update and overview of my new BCS install in the next couple of weeks and everyone is willing to help out and answer questions.

Welcome to the forum.

Jim.

[1971hemicuda]

Thanks Jim! We, here at work, had an almost perminant electrician for a while because we were overloading cirucits with computers. He pulled a crap ton of circuits for us and now, he's out of work because we dont need him any more. so, i'm thinking i'm going to give him a call. after nearly a year and a half, i hope i know him well enough!

But i'm thinking i'm going to take your advice and make it a 240v 30a circuit. I'm making my brew stand have the ability to upgrade from 5 gallons to a full 20 gallon system, so i'm using the 240v SSR's so, i'll make sure i can use bigger heating elements as well.

As for the controller, I just bought it! I'm going to be piecing my brewery together over the next few months as well, so, maybe a comparison of notes is in order.

if you're making a heat exchanger, you might look into morebeer.com convoluted copper coil

http://morebeer.com/view_product/17515/ ... 22_x_25_ft

That's what i'm going to be using. I look forward to seeing pic's of the rig!

Jason