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the_quick

Landlord.
Joined
Dec 7, 2018
Messages
513
Reaction score
300
Location
Polegate, East Sussex
Hi All, been luring around the forum for some time. But never registered. But did today. Brew already on few occasions - but sometimes it was shot in a dark :P.

Have a bigger house now and brand new shed, which will be used primary for brewing - just need to connect power to it - next step.
 
Have a bigger house now and brand new shed, which will be used primary for brewing - just need to connect power to it - next step.

Lucky you!

If I were in your position, go big! You really want cabling run direct from an independent MCCB on your consumer unit, to a smaller consumer unit in the shed. The bigger the supply MCCB and CSA of the cable, the better.

This hobby can and does grow exponentially and you'll find that if you go electric, power supply capacity will be your ultimate limitation. I'm brewing in the garage and limited to one fused spur double gang socket, it's quite frustrating as I'd like to go bigger, but it will be expensive to do so. So I get by with 13A for now.
 
Lucky you!

If I were in your position, go big! You really want cabling run direct from an independent MCCB on your consumer unit, to a smaller consumer unit in the shed. The bigger the supply MCCB and CSA of the cable, the better.

This hobby can and does grow exponentially and you'll find that if you go electric, power supply capacity will be your ultimate limitation. I'm brewing in the garage and limited to one fused spur double gang socket, it's quite frustrating as I'd like to go bigger, but it will be expensive to do so. So I get by with 13A for now.
Curiosity as to why you have a double socket fused from a fused spur.
I can only assume that it's either a spur from a ring main or you only have a 15a supply to your garage..
 
Hi All, been luring around the forum for some time. But never registered. But did today. Brew already on few occasions - but sometimes it was shot in a dark :p.

Have a bigger house now and brand new shed, which will be used primary for brewing - just need to connect power to it - next step.
H
Hi All, been luring around the forum for some time. But never registered. But did today. Brew already on few occasions - but sometimes it was shot in a dark :p.

Have a bigger house now and brand new shed, which will be used primary for brewing - just need to connect power to it - next step.
Hi and welcome to the forum....
 
Curiosity as to why you have a double socket fused from a fused spur.
I can only assume that it's either a spur from a ring main or you only have a 15a supply to your garage..
Yup, it's a fused spur from a ring main inside. Not a fused spur from a fused spur.

Ring main fed bedroom socket -> switched isolator in garage -> double gang socket (13A RCD).

It was previously just a standard double gang socket, but I changed it for the RCD type as our CU still has rewireable fuses.
 
Yup, it's a fused spur from a ring main inside. Not a fused spur from a fused spur.

Ring main fed bedroom socket -> switched isolator in garage -> double gang socket (13A RCD).

It was previously just a standard double gang socket, but I changed it for the RCD type as our CU still has rewireable fuses.
Why don't you just extend the ring main
Yup, it's a fused spur from a ring main inside. Not a fused spur from a fused spur.

Ring main fed bedroom socket -> switched isolator in garage -> double gang socket (13A RCD).

It was previously just a standard double gang socket, but I changed it for the RCD type as our CU still has rewireable fuses.
Is it possible just to extend the ring main from that socket as you'll get around 80 mtrs per ring main without RCD at the board and allowed 104 with though amperage does drop across these giving an average of around 26a....
 
Is it possible just to extend the ring main from that socket
Yeah absolutely possible Gerry, the expense (like everything in this hobby) and time is what it boils down to though.

If I were to ever to expand, it would be to 1bbl terriotry. For that we'd be looking at around 6kW minimum - so would be pushing it on an extended ring main.

If I can find the time then I may well extend the ring main. If not for brewing then just because it's handy.
 
Thanks guys for warm welcome. And for the suggestion, cable is already in the ground but not connected to anything either side. On the house side it will go to main fuse board (not sure what you call that) and there will be small one in the shed as well.
Will talk to my sparky to arrange everything, probably after xmas. So far only small brews.
 
Thanks guys for warm welcome. And for the suggestion, cable is already in the ground but not connected to anything either side. On the house side it will go to main fuse board (not sure what you call that) and there will be small one in the shed as well.
Will talk to my sparky to arrange everything, probably after xmas. So far only small brews.
The fuse board is often referred to as a "consumer unit".

Sounds like everything is in place for you, especially if you wanted to expand which is great!

The CSA of the cable (how thick it is) will be the limiting factor, but you'll probably find it's a pretty large cable by default (4mm-10mm). Your electrician will keep you right though. I can't help with regs or spec as I'm not a shoreside electrician.

What's brewing at the moment? A very warm welcome!
 
Thanks @Ghillie
The cable is armoured 3-Core Cable 4mm² x 50m (my shed is around 30m from the house - 100ft in old money.

At the moment 2 things are in productions. I had left over crystal malts and 2 types of hops 1st Gold and cascade.
So I brew a light beer (around 4%) with 1st gold about 2 weeks ago - both as aroma and bittering - just to check how this will work - it is now in bottles maturing

And yesterday did small batch (1oL) as above but with cascade hops - will compare and decide which I like most.

I got hops and grain from local brewery that was shutting down - 25kg of crystal malts for something like fiver and he thrown in some hops, yeast and Irish moss on top - so basically all I need to do basic brew.
 
Yeah I know, it was hard to resist for that price.

Don't have any base, as I thought crystal is all I need - brewers main ale was brewed on those !
 
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