ferm chamber idea

so here is an idea I am working on for a future ferm chamber. I'm still learning sketchup so take into consideration that things are not 100% to scale or drawn all that well for that matter. But my thought is to use a chest freezer large enough to hold more than the two carboys (the weird looking blue things in the pic) on each level. Insulate between each shelf, and place fans in each shelf to circulate air. The intent would be to to allow different temps on each shelf. The lower the shelf the lower the temp, possibly even lager the lowest level. Each level would have it's own temp probe to turn on the fans. Does my idea seem feasable, and if so anyone have some ideas for improvements?

The first question/issue I see is how are you going to get the carboys out of the lowest level if you have shelving above them and carboys currently fermenting... ?

Are you going to design some kind of hinge/lift system so you have access to the lowest portion in the chest freezer without moving the carboys above it?

That was a scaling issue, if this does turn in to a build, the shelf will be high enough to allow removal of the carboys. Again I'm not that handy with sketch up and it was going to be too much work for me to move it for the picture.

After I posted I though about adding PVC pipe with a fan running from the bottem level to the top to enhance the airflow to the top level

I have been playing with the idea for months of something like this using a mini fridge.

A few points to consider…

Route the air separately from the freezer to each level. That way when the upper levels need more cooling it won’t affect the lower levels.

You could use foam insulation board to build false walls on the inside on each side that is divided up for each level.

Install the fans to blow into each chamber on one side and return on the other.

Put the air inlet and outlet high in the chamber so the cold air cannot fall back into the chest freezer.

The return flow would also need to be separated. Other wise the fans might push the air into the other levels and not the freezer.

I was also going to include a small fan to run all the time inside the chamber to prevent the air from stratifying.

(Dang, I need to draw this up!!! I hope you can picture what all I said.)

Also, I was planning to FILL the fridge with water bottles in order to have some thermal mass to pull the air over to cool it down. When I say FILL, I mean stuff it full.

Also, old style 12v non-digital AC thermostats can be used to turn on and off 12v computer fans.

(Dang, talked myself into it. Now, I GOTTA get mine built.)

The seperate routing was what I was talking about with the PVC, I think you just explained it better.

Good idea about the continually running fan to prevent the air from stratifying.

Does anyone have any idea as to if given this set up lagering would be possible, or will I lose to much cool air? I figured that using a freezer would help.

JoshuaWhite5522 said:

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or will I lose to much cool air?
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I too was concerned about my mini fridge keeping up, that is why I will be adding the water bottles inside the fridge to increase the cold thermal mass to help it compete with the fermentation heat.

If you insulate it, seal it up good and add some kind of thermal mass to the inside of the freezer it should work great. Anything will work. Rocks, cinder blocks, bricks, kegs, 3 liter coke bottles filled with water, empty carboys, etc. Just be sure the air flows across whatever thermal mass you put in there.

Note, I said EMPTY carboys. I'd hate to have one freeze and break.

Beer_Guy said:

Note, I said EMPTY carboys. I'd hate to have one freeze and break.

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Definitely, but I try to make it a habbit to not have any empty carboys sitting around.....