Electrical Heater

[Edgard]

I want to switch over to electrical heating rather than gas.

I find gas too much hassle with bottles running out, pots being blackened when these high pressure burners are on a low flame. Exhaust fumes and the possiblity to blow up your neighbourhood.

Anybody else doing all grain batches of 23 liter using electrical heating elements rather than gas burners?

[Hunty]

hmm, not so sure I have the blackened pot problem, something need adjustment ?

Also if cost is not an issue, be aware of the control difference, you have alot more with gas, ie on/off, with electricity it's not so easy...

[al8877]

Hi,

I have been using Induction cooker for my all grain brews albeit only a few brews.
So far, so good. Only problem is you need a high powered induction cooker, preferably about 2000w.
If not, to reach boiling is going to take sometime and the do not expect a very vigorous boil.

[Edgard]

Can you share some more details on the induction heater?

I want to build a HERMS system using a HLT with a 3KW electrical coil in there to heat the water.
Mash tun using picknick cooler from Rubbermaid.
Marsh pump
In line temperature sensor with digital setting and that drives the pump.

After dough-in and to bring up the mash temperature, I will start the pump.

The pump will draw out wort from under the false buttom and pass it throught the HE in the HLT.

This will warm up the mash till desired temperature.

In line sensor will be set to the desired final temperature [50C, 65C, 78C] and cut off when reached.

Do you think this will work?

[Hunty]

Can you share some more details on the induction heater?

I want to build a HERMS system using a HLT with a 3KW electrical coil in there to heat the water.
Mash tun using picknick cooler from Rubbermaid.
Marsh pump
In line temperature sensor with digital setting and that drives the pump.

After dough-in and to bring up the mash temperature, I will start the pump.

The pump will draw out wort from under the false buttom and pass it throught the HE in the HLT.

This will warm up the mash till desired temperature.

In line sensor will be set to the desired final temperature [50C, 65C, 78C] and cut off when reached.

Do you think this will work?

Process looks fine, but seems like one helluva lot of expense on equipment just to get temperature steps in a mash... . How hot would you aim to heat your HLT water to and how would you control that temperature / cutoff ?

Hunty

[al8877]

Not too sure what you want to know about the induction heater. But for me, I use it mainly to heat my mash and sparge water and for my boil. Induction heaters are very energy efficient, there is usually no or very little energy lost but the draw back is the need for induction compatible pots (generally stainless steel pots work). Induction heaters usually allow temperature or wattage setting but it isn't accurate.

For a 20-25L boil just set it to the maximum. Depending on the actually wattage output, you should have to wait between 20-30mins for the wort to reach boiling point. As said in my previous post, the boil will not be vigorous.

Best to drop by some electrical store and get them to do a demo. You will understand better.

[Hairy]

I use an induction heater for my boils as well. They are very energy efficient to use. I did suggest the use of induction heaters in this forum before but i think there are some issues with it mainly the power of the heater. I am sure that even using a 2000W induction heater is not going to give a hard rolling boil on 20+L of wort. Not sure if they have higher power ones. Also, there is the issue of how much weight can the heater hold. I am not doing a full boil and so these problems are applicable to me.

al8877, do u have any problems using induction heater for a full boil?

[al8877]

I do all my boils using my 2000W induction heater. Not much concern on the weight part, my heater is still holding up after several full boils. But as with my previous post, it take about 30 mins to bring a 20+L wort to a boil and don't expect a vigorous boil.

I'm looking to changing to a 3800W induction heater soon.

[Edgard]

I am using all electric now with PID controllers. These allow much better control than a simple on-off controller.

They use solid state relays that can be switched on and off many times per second. This gives very precise control over the heating process.

Related to cost, for my last brew, I consumed 10Kw for a 25 liter batch. That included heating water for my heat exchanger [HERMS] and a one hour boil.

At current rates that is about 2.5 SG$. I would say gas is more expensive.