might be going electric

[mb-squared]

thanks for the suggestion dave81. I had thought of doing exactly as you say, but ultimately I decided that it was a bit overkill. my control panel is fed by two separate 32A leads so it would require two additional contactors/switches/fuses etc. since the two 32A GPOs (switched) are within an easy reach, it strikes me as an unnecessary redundancy.

hey Mike, I brew 55-60L batches. usually boil for 90mins. I'm keen to see how the 5500W elements compare against my 4-ring HP burners. definitely cleaner and quieter, but will they be quicker?

matto

 

[TheWiggman]

definitely cleaner and quieter, but will they be quicker?

 

[mrsupraboy]

You're probably right about the e-stop, although I can tell you about a circumstance in which I wish I'd had one: I was running a 2400W kettle element through a control panel which used a C14 socket (with a built in fuse holder and 10A fuse) as the inlet, supposedly rated for 10A but probably not continuous duty at that level of current. Near the end of an hour boil, the socket melted and caught fire, without blowing the fuse or tripping the 10A RCBO, so everything was actually still working. If I'd had an e-stop button I'd have been hitting pretty hard at that point. As it was, I was scrambling to switch it off at the mains.

Could you get a 32A double-pole e-stop switch and put it directly after the terminal block? You could cut both the active and neutral that way, completely de-energising the entire panel, to be extra safe. That way if your relays fail and get stuck closed (rare but can happen), the e-stop will still kill power to the SSR and element.

Correct me if I'm wrong bit are you using an rcbo for protection for your elements