Electric Kettle Wiring

[tdiowa]

Hello from Iowa in the United States. I am a homebrewer who is trying to brew the best beer that I can. I have been doing research on the advantages of boiling wort with the use of Electric Heating before fermenting. "We" here in the US have not figured out the advantages of this convience.

Here is what I want to do. I have a 220 v 3000 watt water heater element that I am going to mount in my boiling kettle. I have a 15 amp 240 simmerstat that I am going to use for powering and controling the heating element. I also have a 220 volt outlet that I want to plug into. My question is on the back of the simmerstat I have the following terminals.

P
L1
L2
H1
H2

I don't know what goes where in regards to incoming into the simmerstat and from the simmerstat to the heating element.

Any help would be appreciated.

TD

 

[wessmith]

Hello from Iowa in the United States. I am a homebrewer who is trying to brew the best beer that I can. I have been doing research on the advantages of boiling wort with the use of Electric Heating before fermenting. "We" here in the US have not figured out the advantages of this convience.

Here is what I want to do. I have a 220 v 3000 watt water heater element that I am going to mount in my boiling kettle. I have a 15 amp 240 simmerstat that I am going to use for powering and controling the heating element. I also have a 220 volt outlet that I want to plug into. My question is on the back of the simmerstat I have the following terminals.

P
L1
L2
H1
H2

I don't know what goes where in regards to incoming into the simmerstat and from the simmerstat to the heating element.

Any help would be appreciated.

TD

Hi TD, welcome to AHB. Your power voltages and how they are derived are VERY different from Australia. From the connections you have listed and the voltage (220v), you probably have a 2 phase supply to the wall outlet. I would strongly suggest you get a local US based HBer more familiar with your setup to advise on the connections. We have nothing like this setup in Australia.
Keep up the brewing!

Wes

 

[kabooby]

From the looks of what you have described, and knowing America is 110V, it looks like you have dual phase equipment (Sorry if I am pointing out the obvious).
If it is dual phase you need to control both phases of power so your connections should be L1 - H1 and L2 - H2. This can be checked with a meter as you should see the resistance change across the terminals when you adjust the simmerstat.

Saying that, these voltages and currents are very dangerous. I would strongly recommend you get an electrician to look at it for you and test it out properly. It will need to be earthed and tested. It will be money well spent

Mistakes in these areas can be expensive (cost your life)

Kabooby

 

[fraser_john]

Take a look at CD Pritchards web page. Also register and make a post to Home Brew Digest which is "mostly" an American brewers resource. They should be able to help you out!

 

[wessmith]

Take a look at CD Pritchards web page. Also register and make a post to Home Brew Digest which is "mostly" an American brewers resource. They should be able to help you out!

Hi Fraser_John, the "CD Pritchards" page refers to a voltage of 240 volts. In case any local brewers are confused, this voltage is also a 2 phase supply but derived from an "open delta" neighborhood supply transformer. There is no neutral. How this works is best left to the sparkies amongst us! All very different to Aus.

Wes

 

[Tony]

yeah sounds like 2 phase

In australia we get 240V to neutral and 415V between any 2 phases in a 3phase system.

I wouldnt want to make any assumptions on how it works. Best to talk to a US sparkie

cheers

 

[Tony]

just a thought, try googling the part number on the thing, sometimes that can open up a world of knowledge

cheers again

 

[Screwtop]

Pretty common tag labels for a simmerstat no matter what the supply voltage, however I wonder about the suitability of a simmerstat for use in a kettle. Having the element switch on and off similar to an electric cook top element might not be the best to maintain a rolling boil. These things are not thermostatically controlled.

 

[tdiowa]

Wow, you guys are great with all your advice. I think though I am going to bribe a electrician friend of mine and have him help me wire my electric tun.

If you all don't mind I would like to stick around and read some of your thoughts on homebrewing. I have picked up a few pointers already and who knows I might be able to add something constructive.

Thanks again
TD

 

[kabooby]

Wow, you guys are great with all your advice. I think though I am going to bribe a electrician friend of mine and have him help me wire my electric tun.

If you all don't mind I would like to stick around and read some of your thoughts on homebrewing. I have picked up a few pointers already and who knows I might be able to add something constructive.

Thanks again
TD

Thats OK on one condition

You have to send some bottles of homebrew over for sampling

Try bribing with beer

Good luck

Kabooby

 

[Screwtop]

Wow, you guys are great with all your advice. I think though I am going to bribe a electrician friend of mine and have him help me wire my electric tun.

If you all don't mind I would like to stick around and read some of your thoughts on homebrewing. I have picked up a few pointers already and who knows I might be able to add something constructive.

Thanks again
TD

No probs TD

Thats OK on one condition

You have to send some bottles of homebrew over for sampling

Try bribing with beer

Good luck

Kabooby

An across the Pacific case swap maybe, now that would be good!

Screwy

 

[willanth]

Hi tdiowa, and welcome!

I'm glad to see that there's some homebrewing in the midwest. Last few times I was through there, there wasn't much for real beer to be found!

Keep in mind that if you boil, you're going to be reducing so the specific gravity of your wort will go up (sorry to state the obvious..)

If you're ever on the left coast, Oregon and Washington are a beertopia. But I am a little biased

Cheers!
Will

I am using electric in two of my tanks, and it sure is nice!

 

[fraser_john]

Definitely US 220V is two phase, with a common "nuetral". Their ground is truly that, a wire that runs to a copper spike outside the house. In their fuse box they have both phases run it and take each side and run 110V circuits, using the common nuetral. They try and balance the circuits as best they can so the current draw is equal across both.

I am guessing that the socket he is going to plug it into is something like their clothes dryer socket, typically a 20A or 15A 220V circuit.

My original brew setup whilst living in the USA was driven from a clothes dryer socket, I used 220V for both the HLT heater element (4500W) and the RIMS heater elements (two 2500W in series).

I agree, Google the part number and see if you can find something about it and go from there.