Electric brewery wiring questions

[Stoat on a rope]

Hi all

I'm looking at moving my brewery from the garage (where it's cold, damp and mouldy) to an outhouse that should serve nicely as a dedicated brewing space. Trouble is, there's not power or water supply

So today I started knocking holes in my kitchen walls and I've successfully run some pipe though to my brewhouse-to-be for a water supply (though yet to be plumbed in).

Next is power, and where I need help. The new brewhouse is next to my kitchen, and I'm wondering what electrical circuits I can run from the kitchen into the brewhouse. I've got a 32amp breaker feeding the kitchen sockets including the dishwasher and fridge. Now my brewery will have a maximum of 2x 2.4kw elements, will it be asking too much of the kitchen circuit to stick the brewery on to it?

Thanks for any help, I have...some... household electrical knowledge but understanding load capabilities is a bit beyond me.

Kieran

[alix101]

Is the building attached ? You could extend your ring main from the kitchen.
Alternatively do you have cooker circuit in their.
But the best option is go back to the board with a dedicated circuit.

[Stoat on a rope]

Cheers, Yep the building is attached. Ok so that's an option. Yes theres also a cooker circuit, if that would be better I could join to that one. Running an independent circuit would be quite tricky as the board is several rooms away. However, there may be another option, Ive got a 32amp MCB that's not in use, that was intended for an electric hob (but we have a gas hob instead), if that has a wire running to the kitchen I might be able to find that and I'm laughing. Just means I'm going to need to make a other hole in the wall...

[rpt]

You should get a qualified electrician to install it, especially as it needs to be Part P approved.

[chris246810]

a couple of extension leads from seperate sockets in your kitchen would be the easiest way with no knocking holes through or paying for an electrician.

[davew]

You will be pulling 21A with 2 elements running so bear this in mind if using an extension lead. Would be safer with 2 and make sure that they are fully uncoiled and fitted with RCDs

[themadhippy]

and fitted with RCDs

only worthwhile if you dont already have one protecting the circuit.

[Stoat on a rope]

Thanks guys

I spent some time looking into can and can't do without a building warrant last night (in Scotland, so no part p) and I'm going to try and locate the spare 32amp cable that's not in use in the kitchen and poke it through into the brewhouse. Then I'll run it through one of those RCD units that would normally go in a garage (I've got a modern CU in the house but am surprised to find there's no RCD in it). From this I'll be able to have a 32amp ring in the brewhouse, and a 6amp light. Thanks for your help and pointers, good to know how many amps my elements draw too.

[Fil]

my set up is a distant brewhouse with no power,water drainage,

water is fed by a blue drinking water hose, and drained away with guttering under a toolshed to behind the compost bin, I use 100% biodegradable cleaning and sanitisers..

I run 2 x extension leads fed by dedicated spurs terminated with 16a comando sockets, one off the kitchen ring the second off the garage ring.

the extension leaads plug into 2 x 16a M sockets inside a lil box on the external brewshed wall. Inside the brewshed the feeds are passed thru single 16a mcb boxes.

1 feed powers lighting and a couple of double sockets and a 12v dc psu before terminating in a 16a socket for powering a 2.4kw element.

the second powers either a 3kw inline water heater Or a 2nd 16a socket for pluging in a 3kw element. both my kettle and hlt have 1 x 2.4kw lwd element and 1 x 3kw lwd element..

pic of wirring in the issolator switch for the optional 3kw inline water heater


the cable is trunked through 20mm plastic black plastic conduit.. 2 x 2.5mm twin n earth is a tight fit

as its a temporary power supply its not covered by part P

i need to be mindful of the limited amp overhead available with my 13a sockets and what plugs into them, but if overloaded i hope the local mcb will trip before either the garage or main house .. so far no probs..

i did check here and elsewhere with respect to voltage drop and suitable flex etc before committing to the project

[Stoat on a rope]

Nice work Fil, and good thinking with the extension leads running to a permanently wired set up. That's pretty much confirmed most of what I've found out regarding power supply too so cheers!

[themadhippy]

2 x 16a M sockets

please tell me you mean a male 16A connector,not a socket,otherwise youre going to end up with a plug to plug lead.AKA a widow maker

2 x 2.5mm twin n earth is a tight fit

bit of fairy liquid works wonders,or if youve got it, tallow cutting compounds even better

[Kev888]

I'm not actually certain if there are any special restrictions wrt part P for attached rooms (even if we may choose to call them outhouses), i.e. if the wiring doesn't pass outside the building - I'd be interested if anyone knows definitively.

Cheers
Kev

[Fil]

2 x 16a M sockets

please tell me you mean a male 16A connector,not a socket,otherwise youre going to end up with a plug to plug lead.AKA a widow maker

2 x 2.5mm twin n earth is a tight fit

bit of fairy liquid works wonders,or if youve got it, tallow cutting compounds even better

rest assured TMH there are no live male terminated leads involved, anything terminating/presenting a live feed is fitted with a female commando doodaa..
might not know what they are called but i used em, Im lucky to have an old fashioned hardware shop up the road with everything tied to pin board with a bin number to ask for, so us ignorant lay folk can go in browse the walls n shelves and simply ask for 4 from bin 268 etc ..

I managed to shove my cable through just about, thankfully in a less than 8ft sq area no cable runs exceeded 2m or so but so much for running the 5v and 12v dc wiring for pumps/controllers within the same conduit.. all i need now is to find 20mm conduit clips.. to pin the conduit to the walls, the idea of using 22mm pipe clips with a bit of card shim was a huge fail ;(

[themadhippy]

all i need now is to find 20mm conduit clips

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index ... index.html
just down the road from you ,OX4 6JS

[Fil]

all i need now is to find 20mm conduit clips

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index ... index.html
just down the road from you ,OX4 6JS

You lil beauty

I stopped looking and made do with saggy conduit, my weak web searches for a deal had found packs of 10x for £7.99 + Pnp (ebay iirc) and im way too cheap to pay a quid per fitting after buying 50 22mm clips for about a fiver..

i will be popping round there in the next day or 2 im expecting a red card from postie soon and the PO collection depot is in the same trading estate