Anarchos

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Well. After ruining my first brew at my new house, I have decided to make a "Mother of Fermentation" chamber. I will however add a light bulb of some sort and wire it up with a cheap thermostat picked up at wal-mart for $19. I'm still in the planning phase but will begin construction soon. I did a sketchup of my idea
Mother of Fermentation Chamber by t.technician - Google 3D Warehouse

I have not idea if it will work well, but there is always room for improvement.

once construction begins I will post some pics of how it looks, I've prices it out and so far its only about $80 for this and its is basically seasonal i just flip a switch for heat or cool (and change out the ice).

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Its not the destination that makes the trip, Its the trip that makes the destination

Anarchos

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Ok so I've been playing with the light as a heating source and found out that my thermostat kicks on for too long. Its like it has to be on for a minimum of 5 mins or so. But because the light is so warm it gets well past 74F and because it is so thermal efficient it stays there for a while. Is this a problem with using a house thermostat, I don't know. I'm thinking about moving the light to on of the Ice compartments and use the fan to blow hot air around in the chamber and it will shield the carboy from the UV rays of the light. I guess its a good thing I have nothing I need to ferment right now.

__________________
Its not the destination that makes the trip, Its the trip that makes the destination

Ibrewaletx

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Try a light with lower wattage. How many watts is your current bulb?

Huaco

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Heat rises... I looked at your model and you have the bulb on the top of the chamber. Seems like you would counteract any stratification by placing the bulb near the bottom of the chamber. Just an idea...

captainL

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I can't help much but I'm about to use a light with a thermostat for a small closet. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of thermostat did you get. Was it straight forward to hook up. I have been looking at a line level heat only thermostat for $15 but can't find anyone on here talking about them. Something like this??

But I'm wondering if I would be better off with a standard thermostat that is used on a house ac system for 5 or 10 bucks more?

Of course I'm probably making this more difficult than it should be?

Anarchos

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I am using a 60 watt light, but if I move it to the bottom then I might use a stronger one to push the heat through all the wood. I am using the Honeywell
RHT111B http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-RTH111B-Vertical-Digital-Thermostat/dp/B000WEOQ6I
it was super easy to wire up, and it was actually really easy to convert to a remote sense. when I get home from work I'll take some pictures of the wiring, I did need a relay for the light because the thermostat is run off 24v and the light is 110v, but it works well.

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Its not the destination that makes the trip, Its the trip that makes the destination

aubiecat

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If you are dead set on using a light bulb here is a very cool and safe way to do it.
Light bulb can Heater.

Huaco

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how low does this thermostat go? If I needed to use it for cooling?

Anarchos

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Sorry, didn't have time to take pictures but I did make this wire diagram of how I am wiring the components together. the R, W, Y are the terminals on the thermostat and it looks like it runs off two power sources but I have the 110 wired up to an outlet and the outlet runs the 12v DC adapter, thought about taking apart the DC adapter and just wiring it all as one and have one plug in cable to the all but I'm lazy and there's beer to drink.

well the cool cannot be set any lower than 50F and the heat cannot be above 90F

__________________
Its not the destination that makes the trip, Its the trip that makes the destination

captainL

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Cool. thanks. Good luck with the project.