Might have to make one of those if you wanted it.
Mine looks like this… I wonder how much bending one could do to it before it failed?
For the $20 or so it might be worth it
Babalu, do you know how much yours costs to operate? Vs propane for instance.
Less
I never really figured out exactly how much the propane was because my gas stove, dryer and gas grill all run off a giant tank outside my house and I tapped into that system but suffice to say deliveries were more regular and more volume.
I havent even noticed a bump in my monthly electric bill since I went to the electric boiler.
Wow. I’m actually shoked to hear that. Thanks - something to keep in mind.
to boil off 1l of water it takes about 0.6 kWh. If you have 5.5 gal batch and an evaporation rate of ~15% you boil off about 3l or 0.75 gal. This takes about 1.5 kWh and should cost about 20 - 30 cents depending on your cost of electricity.
You’ll also need energy to heat water, mash and wort. So in the back on the envelope I think a 5 gal batch would cost you between $0.5 and $1.5 when using an efficienct electric brew system. This is a crude estimation w/o actually runnin the numbers. I had done this at some point to get an idea what it takes to make electric brewing work. One of the main problems is that you’ll have to used 240V in order to get sufficient power unless you want to wait a long time for the water/wort to heat. Even worse than that would be a sub-optimal boil-off b/c you don’t have a large enough boil element.
Kai
Kai, your about right.
I remember a thread on HBT about a system that was all electric, he was doing 10 gallon batches.
Something like $1 a batch but he was in Texas and electricity comes a third cheaper than ours does.
Electric rates by state:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_b.html
The main reason why I was looking into electric was that it is safer to work with indoors. It is also much more easily to automate and I know how to work with electricity. The same level of comfort does not esist for LP or NG. The main problem for me is being able to build a system that can do decoctions and heat the mash directly.
Kai
Very cool. Thanks.
Kai, that is the same reason I am looking at it. We just bought a new house with a basement and I am contemplating moving the brewery down there. Of course I do enjoy brewing outdoors so who knows. One thing I hate is having to buy tank after tank of propane.
Odd ;D
Har har. 