My Electric Brewery Build

[St. Fursey]

What's the consensus on running a 5.5kw element? The electricians at work tell me a domestic supply isn't designed to handle such a load. I'm planning on running a line to the shed from the main board. All work will be done by an electrician

[LordEoin]

as far as i know, you'll just need to have the shed on its own circuit with a separate higher rated tripswitch.

[St. Fursey]

That's what I thought. To be safe I'll probably also install a prioritised interlock so the electric shower can't run at the same time

[mr.drankin]

5.5kw runs 24amp, I think a house has 63amp max.  On my set-up I got a 32amp mcb from mains to a commando socket. 

[Shanna]

What's the consensus on running a 5.5kw element? The electricians at work tell me a domestic supply isn't designed to handle such a load. I'm planning on running a line to the shed from the main board. All work will be done by an electrician

I run a 5.5kw element off a 24 amp fuse in my shed. The shed has an independent fuse board but it's wired off the mains supply from the house. Can't use electric shower or dish washer while the boiler is on.

Shanna

[Shanna]

What's the consensus on running a 5.5kw element? The electricians at work tell me a domestic supply isn't designed to handle such a load. I'm planning on running a line to the shed from the main board. All work will be done by an electrician

I run a 5.5kw element off a 24 amp fuse in my shed. The shed has an independent fuse board but it's wired off the mains supply from the house. Can't use electric shower or dish washer while the boiler is on.

Shanna

If your dishwasher is on a regular 13 amp plug then you can run it at the same time, as you're running off a 63 amp fuseboard (as Mr Drankin says). So you have plenty to spare.

Otoh, an electric shower will spike at around 40 amps.

True the addition of  the extra pull from the dishwasher would not be enough to cause an overload. My brother expressed concern (sparks who did the wiring for me) that over any given period the with the oven, kettle, toaster, microwave, dishwasher all located in the kitchen and likely to be in use for prolonged periods of time to avoid using the dishwasher. I think it due to the fact that it would run for 3 hours at a time.

Shanna

[DEMPSEY]

I ran a cable to my shed from the fuse board in the house and have it on a 32 trip switch using 6 sq cable. Also at the shed end have the same blue and white socket as above.

[Dr Jacoby]

I'll be getting a new shed soon enough and plan to brew in it. Any general advice on wiring that I should pass on to the electrician? Most of the time I'll be using one 2kW element and one 2.5kW element together, which I think can be run off standard 13amp sockets. But every now and then I'll be using either a 3kW or a 3.5kW element. At the moment, I only use the 3kW element in the house on a 16amp socket. If I were to get a 16amp socket put in the shed, would that be enough to handle the 3.5kW element? What would be the ideal set-up to handle these various elements?

[St. Fursey]

Most of us are doing a dedicated 32A l Iine from the mains. It's definitely the way to go if its an option and it will give you room to upscale 

[Dr Jacoby]

Cool, thanks.

[St. Fursey]

Just a note on live feed sockets. The live feed from the mains should always have a female connector on the live end. The reason being that you don't want to run the risk of getting a jolt by accidentally touching the prong from a male connector.
So if you are plugging the mains into a control panel, mount a male socket on the panel.

[DEMPSEY]

Made that mistake when I first did it . Thought the cat had kicked me when I touched the prongs. Stupid cat . Did you know a cat can fly when you fling them .

[Will_D]

Most of the time I'll be using one 2kW element and one 2.5kW element together, which I think can be run off standard 13amp sockets.

1 kW is approximately 4 amps

So ( 2 + 2.5 ) * 4 does NOT equal 13! n It is in fact a 50% overload!

Yes you may get away with it but the plug will run HOT and the fuse WILL blow at the most inconvienient time.

A fuse as used in a domestic plug blows at about 100% overload. However even though its not blowing it is getting hot and ageing rapidly! So it will fail!

[Ozbrewer]

All good advice there. My brother-in-law has a device that you can clip onto the main power line in your fuse box and work out how much amps are being used. So, the plan in the next couple of weeks is to do this and just check all will be ok. I don't have an electric shower, and reviewing everything else we use, I should be well within the limits of the house - probably just need to plan to have the washing done during the week when having a brew day on Saturday, and no running the oven, but can use the gas stove instead for cooking. Should all be ok from my perspective.

I'm on holidays at the moment, and brother-in-law will be next week. So it will be another 2 weeks before we commence again. But we probably only have 2 nights wiring left.

I have some pics below of the wiring so far.

This is all the wiring on the door complete. It just needs to be tidied up into the trunking.



This is the main wiring in the panel. Need to finish the interlock wiring (photo below), and wiring in the SSRs and meters.



This is the main contactors / relays.



Sorry on the blurriness on this next photo. This is the interlocks. There are several things going on here - first we have two interlocks so that I can only have a max of 2 elements out of 3 elements running at any given time. Then the other interlocks are for the alarm buzzer and alarm lights. I have one alarm buzzer for the entire panel. I have two timers each with their own alarm light, but linked up to the alarm buzzer. I have an alarm light for the PIDs when hitting temps. The interlocks ensure that when one alarm is on for any of those things, it doesn't light up any of the other alarms. This was a complex bit of interlocking and it required the brother-in-law to work it out - being an experienced panel builder that he is.




Overall it was good progress before I went on holidays. Panel is to be complete and the wiring for the house, plus water input leak on the counterflow - then I'll be able to brew. Hopefully sometime in September.

I'm also in the process of getting all the panel labels written up and sent of for printing.

[Ozbrewer]

Quote from me back in March about the panel build ..... hilarious......

.......I estimate this will take the good part of April to get done due to our own commitments.

However, progress was made this week. We put power into the panel last night and turned it on for the first time.



The temp and volt meter didn't work straight away, but some quick rewiring and changing dc volt outputs on the converter fixed that, a pump light didn't work but a rewire fixed that, all count down timers worked and alarmed independently as designed. The only thing to fix now is the element lights - just a rewire to get them to interlock correctly - however the element switches and the interlocks worked flawlessly.

One more night, tidy up the wiring and the panel will be functional for use. Hopefully complete next week.

Can't believe we started the build of the panel back in March / April. There was a lot of cheering and high-five'ing when we turned it on. Was brilliant to see it lit up.