As my brewing setup keeps evolving I have been finding my self wanting both a proper HLT and a way of doing stepped mashes. I decided that the best thing for my budget at this time would be to turn one of my 10gal igloo coolers into an eHLT then once that is working upgrade it to act as an eHERMS.
Right now I am a renter (but I do rent a house not an apartment) so I am fairly limited. I only have 15amp breakers on the outside outlets which is a major limiting factor. I do have an unused 50amp outlet in my laundry room but an extension cord long enough to provide power outside would be quite expensive and I would assume unsafe as well. I have also upgraded my setup recently with a "brew ladder" which is portable enough to bring to friends houses to brew. In summary, to maintain portability I think I am going to try and keep everything under 15amps. With this being said, here is what I am thinking so far.
I am going to start with a 4500W 240A heating element running at 120V which will yield 1125W and use up ~9.4A. My march pump uses 1.4A bringing me up to 10.8A. For the OpenTroller DX I was thinking about getting the 2.1A power supply. For the time being I will only be using it to monitor temps and switch on/off the HLT element so it really shouldn't draw too much power for now. This wont be the fastest heating eHLT/eHERMS but I think its the best I can do for now.
What I haven't really finalized at this point is all the cooler modifications. I definitely need at least 1 high port for water IN and 2 ports for the wort IN/OUT. I plan on using a pressure sensor to prevent dry firing of the element (and in the future to trigger automatic filling). I'd like to add a sight glass as well since I don't have powered valves yet to automate this filling. I haven't decided if I need a thermowell on the cooler since I will probably be taking my temp reading right before the wort re-enters the mash tun. However, if I want to be able to measure the temp of the HLT water I will need a probe in there. Guess I just answered my own question.
I guess that its for now. If any of you have any advice, suggestions or ideas please let me know. I haven't actually bought any parts yet so plans can change.
Right now I am a renter (but I do rent a house not an apartment) so I am fairly limited. I only have 15amp breakers on the outside outlets which is a major limiting factor. I do have an unused 50amp outlet in my laundry room but an extension cord long enough to provide power outside would be quite expensive and I would assume unsafe as well. I have also upgraded my setup recently with a "brew ladder" which is portable enough to bring to friends houses to brew. In summary, to maintain portability I think I am going to try and keep everything under 15amps. With this being said, here is what I am thinking so far.
I am going to start with a 4500W 240A heating element running at 120V which will yield 1125W and use up ~9.4A. My march pump uses 1.4A bringing me up to 10.8A. For the OpenTroller DX I was thinking about getting the 2.1A power supply. For the time being I will only be using it to monitor temps and switch on/off the HLT element so it really shouldn't draw too much power for now. This wont be the fastest heating eHLT/eHERMS but I think its the best I can do for now.
What I haven't really finalized at this point is all the cooler modifications. I definitely need at least 1 high port for water IN and 2 ports for the wort IN/OUT. I plan on using a pressure sensor to prevent dry firing of the element (and in the future to trigger automatic filling). I'd like to add a sight glass as well since I don't have powered valves yet to automate this filling. I haven't decided if I need a thermowell on the cooler since I will probably be taking my temp reading right before the wort re-enters the mash tun. However, if I want to be able to measure the temp of the HLT water I will need a probe in there. Guess I just answered my own question.
I guess that its for now. If any of you have any advice, suggestions or ideas please let me know. I haven't actually bought any parts yet so plans can change.
