Electrical Halp
I am moving into an apartment soon that will cut off my ability to use a propane burner for brewing beer.
I would like to modify a brewpot with a 4500watt 220V heating element to boil approx 5-6 gallons water/wort. I am still waiting to hear back if we have a outlet in the apartment that can support 20 amps (I hope the stove is electric).
If I dont have any good outlets I might wind up using dual 1500w 120v elements in different outlets. TBD
Anyways, what I want to do is install a dial to adjust the watt output and control the heat. I am not savvy in electrical engineering so any help on this would be sweet. (Im looking at you Dras)
I would like to modify a brewpot with a 4500watt 220V heating element to boil approx 5-6 gallons water/wort. I am still waiting to hear back if we have a outlet in the apartment that can support 20 amps (I hope the stove is electric).
If I dont have any good outlets I might wind up using dual 1500w 120v elements in different outlets. TBD
Anyways, what I want to do is install a dial to adjust the watt output and control the heat. I am not savvy in electrical engineering so any help on this would be sweet. (Im looking at you Dras)
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Comments
You need a big rheostat / voltage regulator.
Like that 1500W 2-gang, Ryder? Past finding that one, we're now outside my area of expertise.
I found this unit and it looks to be exactly what I need. If someone identified the parts I need, and I could build it myself for cheaper I would be all over that.
Nice build quality though, might just go with this.
http://home.highertech.net/~cdp/boilnew/boilnew.htm
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Challenge Accepted
(the more important information than that warning is probably this)
Only hitch I can see to this is the heat loss out of the boiler. You might have to put insulation around it to keep heat losses to a minimum.
If this doesn't work then go to the dual outlet approach, but in order to get 220VAC the 2 outlets have to 180 degrees out of phase from each other. You can't simply take one outlet and combine it with another. If you have a multimeter you can check this. put you probes between each "hot" (black) line. If it reads 0, it's because they are the same phase. Really depends on how they wired your apartment. If all your outlets are on the same leg from the electrical box, you simply can't get your 220VAC