Looking for ideas for a cheap fermentation cabinet heater

I only need to raise it about 5 or so degrees occasionally. What are some ideas?

Thanks!

What does it look like/is it made of? Possibly a 100 watt bulb?

Not sure what to do for a cheap fix for the cabinet. When I need to get out of the lower 60's I use the water bath method with a aquarium temp controller that ranges between 68-80 (usually about 2 degrees cooler than what it's set at). That gives me a pretty good temp range.

Dwain said:

What does it look like/is it made of? Possibly a 100 watt bulb?

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Its a fridge. I was thinking about a small space heater but that seemed overkill to me. I like the idea of a light bulb. It won't affect beer in a clear fermentor, right?

I have been using a 60 watt bulb for the past two winters and it has worked great.

-TH- said:

Its a fridge. I was thinking about a small space heater but that seemed overkill to me. I like the idea of a light bulb. It won't affect beer in a clear fermentor, right?

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Stick a metal coffee can over it to keep the light out. Or they sell ceramic IR heaters at pet stores for terrarium tanks.

I got a stick on reptile heater (not the ceramic IR although that would work). It's really low power and will easily raise the temp 10-15 degrees. It does raise the temp very slowly though, so don't expect it to warm your wort... just keep it warm. This is what I got and just stuck it to the side of my fridge, near the bottom since heat rises.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752652

I think I got the 10-20 gallon size. Only 8 watts!

Soperbrew said:

Stick a metal coffee can over it to keep the light out. Or they sell ceramic IR heaters at pet stores for terrarium tanks.

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I believe it's sunlight or UV light that is the problem, not light in general.

You can get these at Walmart $13.00 Has a built in fan works great along side a temp controller. Extremely small footprint.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XDTWN2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 o-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0047Q9PP4&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX 0DER&pf_rd_r=0ZCQNXH9J2R13JWH3GD1

heating pad for backaches can be found very cheap as well

I was planning on using an old space heater. Probably overkill, but the fan will help move the warmth around.

I would say that a 100W incandescent light bulb would work just fine too. If you are fermenting in a clear container, simply place a black concert T over the it. You DO have an old Black Concert T, don't you??

I use heat wrap for plumbing. I 2nd the coffee can idea; a t-shirt would scare me a bit.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-carboy-heater-184767/

Cheap and works great. I put one in my 26 CF Freezer a few weeks ago and hooked it up to a Ranco temp controller as the temp in my garage started dipping below freezing and I wanted to keep my beer at a nice 38* I also have another one taped to a carboy in my basement which is about 60* and it is keeping the fermenting beer at 70* at the end of my ramp for finishing up fermentation.

if its in a fridge, a 40 watt lamp will do just fine. I used a 100 watt for a day or 2 but I kept overshooting temps by like 15 degrees and that was when it was 5 outside the fridge. It was on a temp controller BTW

At $32, this is not as cheap as some of the other suggestions, but I have one of these hooked up to a Johnson controller, and it works great in my chest freezer fermentation chamber. My basement gets down to about 50F in the heart of winter, so this works well to get me up to ale temps. Unlike fermwrap, which has to wrap around an individual carboy, this pad sticks to the fridge wall and will heat a chamber with several buckets or carboys.
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BREWER_S_EDGE_SPACE_HEATER_P518C100.cfm

I have a 60w bulb and I can take beer from my 60* ambient room well into the 70s (never tried to see how warm I can get it) in a 2x2x3 pink foam box, so unless you have it on a thermostat, it will probably over shoot.

I have my bulb on a cheap line voltage thermostat. Kind you would use for baseboard or wall heaters.

I also wrapped my bulb in a layer of alum foil, I have also spray painted one black too. Probably a moo point (you know, from a cow's perspective).

Some good ideas here. I still haven't decided which approach to take yet but thanks for getting my mind rolling...

I wonder if there was a way to use just a resistor or something similar that gets warm when you run current through it (besides a light bulb)?

you could put a small computer in the cabinet.

A it would be somewhat difficult and expensive to find a large resistor. you want something that is either designed to heat or something along those lines. so the heating pad, lightbulb, fish tank heater, mini space heater etc all fall into that category. it really doesnt matter as long as it uses a fair amount of power and your beer can be protected from it.

I use a hair dryer hooked up to my 2 stage ranco temp controller.It`s cheap....has low / high settings....has a built in gfci in case of fermenter blow over....it circulates the heat / air every time it kicks on....and it works well to raise the temp of the beer.