Power Controllers

[YHB]

It will not take you very long to realise that Electricity is not my stong point - so if I make any fundamental errors in questions or statements - please feel free to correct me.

I have had a look for articles on power controllers, I can find many for USA and Australian power supplies but not too many on ones for the UK. I am sure they are there somewhere, they may even be here on this site, if you know of any good ones please tell me about them.

I am looking for a power controller or the pieces to build one that will cope with 3kw continously.

From the reading that I have done, this one seems as though it may do the job for £37.50

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/POWER-VOLTAGE-MOTOR-SPEED-CONTROLLER-240-VAC-25Amp-/200689293186?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item2eba039782

This one seems to be the same thing but the instructions are in German but only costs £17.90

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KEMO-M028N-LAMPENDIMMER-MOTORDIMMER-DIMMER-230-V-4000-W-/220689349350?pt=Dimmer&hash=item33621c3ae6

Finally this one from China at £4.50 - I think it may do, but the CHINGLISH description leaves a lot to be desired - despite what the words try to say I think I may be reluctant to put 3KW through it or am I being over cautious.?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3800W-SCR-High-power-Voltage-Regulator-Dimming-Speed-Control-Thermostat-/220915838554?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336f9c2e5a

I appreciate I will have additional costs for boxes, fans, meters and the like so I do not know what the overall cost would eventually turn out to be. Are there other UK - off the shelf solutions that would be more economical or just better?

Any Electrical experts out there willing to offer advice?

What power control do you use?

[i dont drink]

what do you want to control bri?

[YHB]

Sorry

Controller for Boiler Heating Element

[YHB]

any good?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TS25-WATER-BO ... 010wt_1180

Thanks for the response.

This is a thermostat that switches the boiler on and off, so that the temperature will keep going up and down in cycles. This will affect the stabilisation of the heat in the column.

With a thermostat, turning it down will just stop the water boiling until it cools down to the new temperature that you have just dialled in.

From what I have read, most people with Burco's and the like either remove this bit or by-pass it and hook-up a power controller that you can adjust the amount of power used.

With a power controller you can select, say, 3kw for a quick start up and once the wash is boiling, turn the power imput down to, say, 1kw to get a rolling boil for take off.

[Capt-Cudellez]

Your correct Brian - for any element you select you will have to by-pass any built in thermostat.

Those controllers look okay, but you will have to have it mounted to a fairly hefty heat sink using thermal paste if your putting 12.5amps (3kw on 240v) through it. Any controller is going to get hot, so the heat sink needs to be suitably sized.

This is an expensive off the shelf unit also rated at 25A, you can see it's more heat sink than controller.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-UAL-Phase-Angle-AC-Power-Regulator-25A-AVR25-240V-/350472808623?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Test_Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item5199cea8af

[YHB]

I just had an awful pain in my wallet.

It certainly looks the part, but it would double my budget for the whole still.

I always was anticipating adding some cooling - I have a box of bits left over from various computer projects including power packs and cooling fans - I will have to do some more reading and have a think!

Is this what you have on your VM?

[Capt-Cudellez]

I wasn't suggesting buying the unit (too many £££'s), just showing what sort of heat management you would need.
I use the T500 boiler with the VM- so use a 10amp version that I got on ebay sub 30 quid, that was a better deal for me than building my own, I had looked at using a PSR-25 as the base, but that was £35 from farnell at the time, and then you need the heat sink and a potentiometer on top.

Of course you could just size the element a 2Kw will be okay in a 2" for both stripping and the spirit run, and you could live with the heat up time if your boiler is no bigger than 30ltrs.
This company does alternative wattage and thread sizes - make sure you inquire about the domestic version as commercial will be about 10 times the cost.
http://www.tpfay.co.uk/OurProducts/immersion_heaters.aspx


CC.

[billmcc]

This is what i used but its only suitable for upto 1500 watts

http://www.quasarelectronics.com/cr0008 ... -1500w.htm

[MrCat]

Or just get two elements. Two 1500 watt ones. Both on for stripping + to bring to the boil and unplug one when it hits the temp

[YHB]

Bill, Capt, Mr Cat

Thanks for the responses they are all seem consistent - use smaller heaters albeit one or two.

I have had it in my head to use one of these (replacement burco elements - around £20.00) .



A couple of reasons

1) They are designed to mount on a flat surface, ie underneath the boiler. Others that I have seen need to go through the curved part (side) of the boiler and I have reservations about sealing the heater to a curved surface. Is this an issue or am I worrying about problems that dont exist?

2) They come with all the bits required to fit it; locknuts, washers and the like.

3) I do not have to install a threaded connector onto the boiler.

The ones I have found locally are either 2.5 or 3 kw which is where I got my power ratings from.

I will have a re-think based on your input, there is still 3 or 4 weeks to go before I need to commit.

Thanks again

[Capt-Cudellez]

Should be okay for a nice clear neutral wash going in - but anything that still has a bit of grain, yeast\solids, thinking whisky or rum type washes that stuff settles to the bottom when you boil it, and you may have scorching issues.
Thats why you see side element fitted a little way off the bottom of the boiler.

You are also limiting yourself to an open top boiler. I love my beer keg stripper, but wish I had fitted a large opening to get in to clean it. I used a 2.25" Essex flange, and yes i had issues sealing it, I ended up using some food safe sealant to stop it dripping.

[YHB]

Thanks Capt'n

I started off this project, adamant that I would not be side tracked from my goals of only making neutral and that I would not use my still for anything other than clear sugar washes.

The more I read, the further I want to go with this hobby and have started building into my still ideas that could be used for making other products.

Other than reading about peoples efforts to distill off the grain, sediment in the boiler and subsequent scorching has never entered my chain of thoughts. But now that you have mentioned it, it seems such an obvious problem area that I am now kicking myself for not thinking of it myself.

Still too much to learn, thanks for your guidance Capt'n it's much appreciated.

[YHB]

I stumbled on another power controller this time from Australia and costing 50 pounds with postage.

It is the same model as the Chinese one that costs ten pounds but with different packaging, there is a thread on the AD Site if anyone is interested, the result was that the Chinese one was given a thumbs up.

So that’s it. I have ordered one and now I can start looking for the rest of the bits to build the controller around it.

My intention is to make a boiler with two 1500w elements. One element with an on off switch, the other powered by a controller.

First element off - with power contoller on the second element gives 0 to 1500w
First element on – with power controller on the second element gives 1500 to 3000w

This controller is rated as 3800w – with my proposed hook up i.e. controlling one 1500w element only, it would be running at less than 40% of its rating and only pulling about 7 Amps. I intend to put it in a ventilated enclosure with a computer fan to help with the cooling.

[StillWaters]

Although I have a relatively low wattage element in my still (1380w but can be upgraded at a later date) I decided to go for a power controller. I bought a 4000w speed controller/dimmer module from China and a ventilated project box from Hong Kong. With the addition of the local power socket total cost has been under 25 quid and will give me more than enough reserve for future element sizing. Just about to start assembly so will comment further when completed.

[StillWaters]

Well, it's done and working fine. Decided to add a digital temperature controller to give a good readout at the column head (+/_ 0.1 degree) and give me the option to switch the heating element on and off at set temperatures if necessary later.
Total Cost:
a) 2 power extension leads (2m each) to cut and wire in @ Aus$2.oo each
b) 4,000 watt voltage/speed controller with sensor (only have 1380w element but will change at a later date to higher wattage for faster boil on stripping runs) @ Aus$10.00
c) Aluminium project box for controller @ Aus$ 16.00
d) Temperature controller @ Aus$14.00
Which all equates to GBP 29.50
Very simple to assemble for even the most useless DIYer in less than an hour and looks quite professional. Pretty inexpensive too.
All materials bought off eBay except for extension leads bought at local hardware warehouse. Now to run that new still :0)
Cheers, SW