The electric brewery control panel.

[AJ_Rowley]

Hi all,

First off I would like to point out that the internet is such a dangerous place for a homebrewer looking for inspiration.

Now what I was wondering if any one has built a control panel like the one from the electric brewery. Obviously it was designed in Canada and for the US and Canada market. So the reason I ask is if anyone has adapted to uk/ireland power and plugs/connections.

I have just been reading their website for the last couple days and absolutey love the look of of the control panel.

I should point out I'm stikk in the process of building my first all-grain build so am looking at this much further down the line.

Sorry for the long post
And cheers for any responses
AJ

 

[PD]

you got a link to their web site ?

 

[AJ_Rowley]

Www.Theeclectricbrewery.com

 

[PD]

Very nice, bookmarked for a read at leisure

 

[AJ_Rowley]

See what I mean, a very dangerous place.:lol:

 

[MacKiwi]

Nothing to stop you building the same here. All of the bits and pieces they use are readily available.

I won't be cheap though, the cost of all those widgets add up!

Be careful with how you run the mains in. If you are running multiple elements and pumps from the same box, it will need a lot of juice. Running a dedicated feed from your consumer unit (with an appropriate RCBO) would be best. You won't simply be able to run it all from a 3 pin plug!

 

[barneey]

Ive built one :whistle: ,just follow the instructions for the 240v build.

 

[AJ_Rowley]

I'm going to be getting a sparkie to run a 32amp cable from the house to the new shed. Would that suffice in terms of power and safety?

 

[AJ_Rowley]

@ barneey - if you dont mind me asking how much did the box cost you all in?

 

[MacKiwi]

Crikey Barneey - did you aquire that from the Apollo project???

 

[Vossy1]

Do that control panel some justice barneey, turn the pic round :lol: :mrgreen:

I'm going to be getting a sparkie to run a 32amp cable from the house to the new shed. Would that suffice in terms of power and safety?

Depends on what you're using, I'll give you my scenario. Herms pid pulsing 2.75kw element, hlt rising to strike with 2 x 2.75kw elements, I use the pid and one hlt element on one 13A circuit and the other hlt on another. The cable gets warm, not hot, and I know it's not ideal, but it works for now. If you're doing it from scratch and have the funds I'd go with whatever you need plus a bit....I'd need 37ish amps but would install 50A to be on the safe side.

 

[barneey]

I`ve never actually worked out the total for the project as I bought the parts over a year.

At a guess anything between £500 to £600?, cheaper than buying a kit from them + you can build exactly what you want.

Just buy the parts from China / HK to save money

 

[AJ_Rowley]

So alot of the parts can be bought from china? Ebay or is there another website to use.

 

[barneey]

You could buy them from places like RS or other online retailers, but ebay.co.uk with the overseas suppliers is by far the cheapest, you just need to wait a while for em to arrive.

But just follow the 240v instructions on the website, ie everything should be 220vac or there abouts. The Americans use a 4 wire system , so things are a little simplier this side of the pond.

 

[barneey]

After speaking with the admin on here, I`ll post the link to JBK of the build, as it would be somewhat difficult to condense the knowledge I gained during the project, just encase you haven't seen my other thread on the subject.

JBK

 

[AndyW]

Barneey thanks for posting that. Just starting to cut metal on a controller box. It going to be a nervous read though those posts, as most of my components are already ordered and I do not need any more expense on this project.

 

[mixale]

.. ditto what V said about the size of the supply cable.

Go for a 50A breaker in the consumer unit or a seperate garage type add-on box.
Then use 10mm cable feeding the new consumer unit in the garage.
From here you can have various breakers for each service.

 

[MacKiwi]

What mixale said. This is effectively what I've done. I have a 45A breaker feeding 10mm cable to the brew-shed (the cable would in theory carry up to 60A, but I'm playing it safe with a 45A breaker). In the shed there is a small consumer unit with the following circuits...

20A RCBO feeding a hard-wired cable to the HLT (2 x 2.2kW elements)
20A RCBO feeding a hard-wired cable to the Boiler(2 x 2.2kW elements)
32A RCBO for the ring-main
5A RCBO for the lights

On occasion I have both the boiler and HLT running at the same time, so this gets close to maxing the circuit. Soon I'll be adding a HERMs element on the ring-main, so I may have to be careful how much I switch on at the same time. Regardless, it is all safe as the cables have a much higher capacity than the rating of the breakers that protect them - the worst that will happen if I switch too much on is the main 45A breaker will trip.

 

[AJ_Rowley]

Sorry for not posting in a while been working. All great advice guys thank you so much. I'm just going to brew outside until the shed is wired.

@barneey thanks for posting that up I was gonna ask you but but then thought it would be a bit cheeky of me to ask when theres the website.

When it comes to electricity I am a bit dense so havent a clue. I live in ireland and was wondering if our power and all things related are the same. I know we use the same tyoe plugs:-?

 

[SweetMoFo]

I live in Ireland and was wondering if our power and all things related are the same. I know we use the same type plugs:-?

UK and Ireland electricity is the same.