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not sure if this is relevant but we have a electric boiler that heats our hydronic water system have never ran it to produce steam but have used it to produce 200 degree water . at over a 1000 bucks a month to run it was shut off in no time , our power bills come in every 3 months so by time we got the power bill it was not good , almost a big brown splatter on the post office wall when i opened the bill , my opinion is dont use electricity do what you have to to avoid it burn the neighbours furniture to produce heat if you have to anything but electricity . lol tim

Yeah, I dont understand the thought process on getting an electric boiler to create steam to then heat your still. If your going to use electric as your energy input (instead of natural gas) why pay more for a steam heated still, and more for a steam boiler. Either go electric still (with element, or a bain marie) and have the cheaper/easier install/up front cost, or go natural gas with a boiler an pay more up-front for the lower operating cost. Getting a steam heated still with an electric fired boiler kinda seems like getting the worst of both (typically more expensive still, more to pipe and install, boiler to install, potentially needing a boiler room, high operating costs).

I don't know who is selling you the still (Corson?), but I believe that they are giving you incorrect info. From my experiance Silk City is correct "a boiler is a boiler". If you want to go electric without all of the hassle or aditional cost of a boiler and if you have not already made your down payment for the still, we can sell you a jacketed 250 gallon still with a built in electric heating system. Our built in electric heating system is a little more efficiant than an electrically fired boiler, becouse you do not have the heat loss that boiler plumbing has, however a natural gas boiler will save you around $5.00 to $8.00 per run on that size still, depending on how much your electric costs per kw. We also sell Rite propane and natural gas fired low pressure steam boilers, if you are interested. paul@distillery-equipment.com 417-778-6100

This is not the case, a boiler is a boiler.

I run a 250g still off a 16hp boiler, so that's roughly 150kw in electrical equivalent. I can heat up in about an hour if it's warmer temps, the equipment is still hot, etc. Or about an hour and a half from a cold start in a winter. The efficiency on the electric boiler should be somewhat higher, but I would imagine you are still looking at 3 hour heat up times with only 50kw.

An electric fired steam boiler like a Sussman or Reimers will probably be as costly to install and plumb as a gas fired boiler. In the case you might find it to be somewhat cheaper on the install, it's going to be a wash when you factor the increased operating costs. Itll be similarly sized when installed, and the same rules apply to steam boilers regardless of how they fire.

Any reason why you would want to go electric instead of gas fired? My 150g runs off 27kw and waiting two hours for it to heat up once or twice a day is a real bear. Electric was cheaper to start off, but these $500-700 monthly electric bills are starting to add up and will eventually cost more to run than switching everything over to steam.