Professional Temperature Controlling Systems

[Cornbread]

[quote="MuleKicker"][quote="theholymackerel"]All that is required is steady, even heat.

A "professional temperature controlling system" suggests that the temp inside a still may be controlled. This is an incorrect assumption.

Barometric pressure, altitude, and the make-up of yer wash or mash sets the temp that yer still operates at.

Once again: All that is required is Steady, Even Heat.



+1
I built a "professional temp controller" also. It does not work effectively because you cannot chase temp, you need to vary heat input.



Mulekicker.....That statement helped me more than anything...You cannot chase temp....Mash makes a difference, like weather.Thanks so much
I sure wish I had read that one sentence from you before going crazier-blaming thermometers - still wife - anything.

[brantoken]

I disagree with what has been said about what exactly is needed or should I say the electrical engineers I work with disagree with the triac approach.
Besides it has already been done well enough, if you want to do some thing that is a major improvement,
do a zero point switching SCR power controller , Like the Omega Engineering SCR19Z-24-040. Please note: it needs to operated
via pot and not a temperature controller. The reason is you want to ramp up power till you hit boiling point and
then back off the power a great deal. This will shorten run time( heat the wash up to production temp). I think the ability to save time on a run
would be considered a major improvement. Also it should make the elements last longer, which would be good as well.

After receiving guidance for the electrical wizards, I picked up the Omega power controller on Ebay for cheap, just bought the Potentiometer accessory, I will have 7 kw (2 element) for heat up , will disengage one element and run one element (3.5kw) for a finer control on run temps. Yeap, it is all 220 V. No comments as of yet as I am still building......

Also an included ground fault would be a nice safety feature. I have priced and they cost a fortune.....I have to get a sub panel or a ground fault breaker, big $$.
But then again dying sucks.....Or so I heard.

I do agree with the " need to be reasonable priced" which means cheap and that is defined as " the price of a triac system" .

Production temp is a function of vapor pressure and heat of vaporization , which for alcohol and water is far less than
the heat capacity of either liquid. That is why temp control actually should be a power control.

...

[rad14701]

A Triac is nothing more than two SCR's in a single unit... If you want to pull both sides of the sine wave you either need two SCR's or one Triac... While there may be a greater selection of high power SCR's than Triac's there are still enough choices for our needs...

I have another dual triac based controller ready for a maiden run... It's the simplified controller using a 600W 120V dimmer, a 100 ohm 25W cereamic resistor, and a 400V 40A unisolated triac screwed into an isolated aluminum heat sink... It will drive a 120V 1500W internal element... Waiting for cash flow so I can get the new pot...