Since I started, I've been using the electric stove top as my heat source. Needless to say, as I've racked up the hours running my still I've become frustrated with the rollercoaster heat output of the stove.
I debated about going to propane or using an internal element. But the truth is, propane is just more equipment I can't house and an internal element is silly on my 16L stock pot. I'd like to go the hot plate/external element route.
That got me thinking. Most common hotplates are up to 1KW and are either expensive or pieces of junk. To get a good, high power hot plate is just out of the budget. So, what if I built a 240V triac controller and just bypassed the infinite switch in the stove's internals? Could I put together a box with a dimmer switch, open up the stove and just take the connectors off the back of the switch for the burner element I use, and just plug them into my DIY controller?
If so, I'll just go that direction. Which leads me to the next phase of my questioning:
IT seems I should be able to source the parts locally. The triac can be had from Radioshack, I think:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... nSession=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Would that be suitable?
Then I would just follow the first schematic here?
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 7#p6709297
Can someone confirm I'm not crazy?
