Gfi breakers and control power

[Backwoodsbrewing]

I am preparing to build my control panel for my brewing. I have installed a 30 amp circuit and a spa disconnect with a 2 pole gfi breaker. As well as a 120 volt 20 amp circuit with a gfci receptacle. I originally planned to use the 20 amp circuit for control power and use the 30 amp strictly to power the Hot liquor tank and boil kettle elements. My reasoning was I I didn't want to hassle with nuisance tripping on the 220 volt 30 amp circuit by tapping it for control power. I am not sure if this is going to work now. I am using a lot of or most of the diagrams from. Electric brewing supply and the electric brewery. Is there any problem tapping the control power off of the 30 amp circuit. Such as nuisance tripping. I would rather keep heating and control separate but I'm not sure if it will work with the line diagrams provided.

 

[doug293cz]

If your control panel and GFCI are properly wired, and the current limiting breaker properly sized for the total load, there is no risk of nuisance tripping of either the GFCI or the current limiting breaker by tapping off 120V power for ancillary uses. A 30A circuit is only capable of driving one 5500W element (23A draw) at a time, so there is plenty of capacity to run the control electronics and a pump or two (and don't anyone start on the 80% rule, as this is not a continuous operation application.)

Brew on

 

[ajdelange]

It's not clear from your post whether the 20 Amp 120V outlet is wired to a separate breaker at the main panel but it seems pretty clear that is is not but rather to the GFCI breaker. Even so there should be no problem if things are done right. Done right means that there are 4 wires between the main panel and the GFCI breaker in the sub panel or between the GFCI breaker and your breaker in your panel. The reason I mention this is that there are drawings circulating in which only 3 wires are brought out. The heating elements go between the red and black wires. Your 120V circuit goes between the red wire and the white wire or between the black wire and the white wire. The bare (or green) wire goes to the receptacle ground and to the kettle ground.

If the 120V outlet is a duplex you can remove the jumper and wire one side to the red and the other to black. This allows you to split the 120V load (for example, if you have a pump and a controller) between the two phases thus insuring better balance of loads but this really isn't that important. I don't think you will be able to do this with a GFCI receptacle but you do not need a GFCI receptacle if you are feeding it from a GFCI panel mounted breaker.

 

[KingfisherBrewing]

Yup - What adjlange said.

So long as you have wired the 2 pole GFCI correctly, and your control power taps off one of the hot lines (either red or black) AND you have the neutral wired back through the 2 pole GFCI breaker, then you will have no issues.

You MUST connect the control panel's neutral wire THROUGH the GFCI breaker though, otherwise it will kick out thinking there is a ground fault. Not sure if that part was clear, or was even really part of your question, but that would definitely cause some issues.

As for overload nuissance tripping, you should be alright so long as you don't run over the 30A total draw... In theory, you can run two 7A 120v devices simultaneously with your 5500W element, so long as you connect one device to Line1 and the other device to Line2 (with your element connected between L1 and L2)

And like doug said - if anyone is telling you about the 80% loaded breaker rules from the NEC, they only usually apply to continuous operations where the load will sustain above 80% for hours on end.

Hope that makes sense

 

[Backwoodsbrewing]

It's kind of funny I'm an electrician by trade and have installed many spa panels but I'm not sure this is a bit different than installing just a spa. I know you can use multiple circuits in different ways but my job usually end at the tub. I don't normally get to wire up panels like this. So I am kind of enjoying this. I added the 120 volt circuit just for ****s and giggles thought it might come in handy.

 

[Backwoodsbrewing]

So I started laying out the door. I will hopefully get to the rest of the cabinet this weekend. I'm not going to put a timer in most of the brewing apps and programs have timers so it seemed redundant

 

[Backwoodsbrewing]

Post deleted by author

 

[Backwoodsbrewing]

Ok here's a picture of what I have so far most won't want to read this and I didn't want to post yet another brewery build thread just hoping for an eye in the sky

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1495234156.167448.jpg