Heating methods for fermentation chambers

Ok, so most here seem to have the issue of cooling with respect to their ferm chambers and that seems to be a pretty common topic with a multitude of methods to deal with it.

But, I have a cold basement in the winter that is only BORDERLINE within Ale ferm temps.

How do people heat their ferm chambers and does anyone have a dual-mode ferm chamber that can heat or cool (with a controller than handles 2 outputs and hysteresis)?

Heat therapy pads? Space heaters (not looking for a fire hazard!)? other?

I am sure there are some totally obvious solutions I am missing, so what are they?

I use a small cube space heater (personal sized?). You can use reptile lamps (heat no light). Many are using a Love TSS2-2100 or Ranco temp controller for hot & cold. Depending upon how well insulated your chamber is, you might be able to just use a light bulb with something to cover your fermenter if clear to prevent hop skunking.

I've been thinking about a ferm chamber, and have mainly thought the heat off of a normal incandescent bulb would work..

I'm in the process of planning this out as well. I like the idea of building a 2 stage temp controller (found here, but was struggling with what to use for the heating as well. I thought about a small heat lamp but again I am worried about a fire hazard as well. Then the cooling part would be taken care of by a mini fridge with the door removed attached to the end of the chamber.

Mobius570 said:

I'm in the process of planning this out as well. I like the idea of building a 2 stage temp controller (found here, but was struggling with what to use for the heating as well. I thought about a small heat lamp but again I am worried about a fire hazard as well. Then the cooling part would be taken care of by a mini fridge with the door removed attached to the end of the chamber.

Click to expand...

Yeah, i think the cooling part (reusing a condenser unit of some kind) is pretty well covered and the scale just depends on the size of said chamber.

But, for heating, a couple ideas I thought about were heat pads (like an old therapeutic heat pad) sammiched between a few bricks, or space heater.

Why use a light source in a ferm chamber? How do you shield the incandescent light from the chamber while still circulating enough heat to control the chamber?

Check out the link in my sig to the ferm chamber. It is two stage with a heater, parts list, and how-to.

Randar said:

Yeah, i think the cooling part (reusing a condenser unit of some kind) is pretty well covered and the scale just depends on the size of said chamber.

But, for heating, a couple ideas I thought about were heat pads (like an old therapeutic heat pad) sammiched between a few bricks, or space heater.

Why use a light source in a ferm chamber? How do you shield the incandescent light from the chamber while still circulating enough heat to control the chamber?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not fond of the light idea either, bt wasn't sure if a heating pad would give off enough heat. But with a good seal and the area is small enough, a heating pad could be optimal. Hmmm...

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Check out the link in my sig to the ferm chamber. It is two stage with a heater, parts list, and how-to.

Click to expand...

Thanks Boerderij. I have considered something like this but my real goal is to do a walk-in cooler behind my (fictitious/fantasy) bar so I can run the taps right through the walls. My wife keeps reminding me that it is WELL off in the distance before any of that happens, so I suppose I should be keeping it simple for now.

That little radiant heat guy should just about do the trick. Doesn't look as dangerous as the old portable ceramic one I have laying around. I may try the heat pad version first since I have an old one that has been replaced lying around.

I use a 40watt incandescent light bulb

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Check out the link in my sig to the ferm chamber. It is two stage with a heater, parts list, and how-to.

Click to expand...

Great thread! Did you find any problems with using that space heater in the long run?

I use this:


With This:


and this:

Is that a reptile heating element?

It's a Brewer's Edge heating pad. It has a sticky backing to it to adhere to the chest freezer wall.
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BREWER_S_EDGE_SPACE_HEATER_P518C100.cfm

Kilted Brewer said:

With This:

Click to expand...

That looks very similar to the seed-starter heat pads I use... interesting!

Now, if you really wanted to go huge you could use a pre-fab section of heated floor mat sammiched between some cement board and lightweight tile installation... that would be a pretty damn consistent heat source. I used Nuheat mats in my bathroom floor. I believe they would wire right up to a 120v temp controller...

The little fan heater is $14 at homedepot and runs like a champ. If you get the pad, I recommend a fan to move the air.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

The little fan heater is $14 at homedepot and runs like a champ. If you get the pad, I recommend a fan to move the air.

Click to expand...

Well, it's hard to argue with something that simple, I admit, but a sub-floor heating element is badass...

What would be the purpose of the fan? Besides moving the air. What would be the advantage of that? I do not have a fan, but have had no issues maintaining temps, even raising temps for a d-rest on a lager.

A fan moves air and distributes temperature. Without a fan many people report temperature stratification in their chambers. I never had this problem, but I always had a fan...

Maybe it isn't an issue, that's just what other people reported.

Gotcha...I'm using a thermowell in the wort, and that's the only temp I'm concerned about!

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

A fan moves air and distributes temperature. Without a fan many people report temperature stratification in their chambers. I never had this problem, but I always had a fan...

Maybe it isn't an issue, that's just what other people reported.

Click to expand...

I think you can do without the fan if you place the heating element in a way to encourage convection circulation.

Maybe. Personally, I think people believe convective circulation is way more effective than it actually is. In the end, if what you do works for you, it works.

I use a rubbermaid container half full of water with a fish tank heater in it.

58 degree basement and a 74 degree fermenting Belgian!!!

Just use some foam under the rubbermaid to keep the concrete from sucking all the heat out of the rig.

I found a 50w aquarium heater in the trash recently so that's what I've been using. If it were to provide heat directly into my fermentation chamber, I'd use a 25w light, a reptile rock, a hair dryer on low, a small under the desk heater, etc, all on a controller of course.

I have one of these units of 100 watts off a job I worked on as an extra not needed so it went home with me. Plenty big for a large refrigerator plus it has a small muffin fan inside that circulates the air nicely. The element is like a LWD unit. I see below the 100 watt unit is listed at $341, ouch! A 800 watt unit NIB is on ebay with 14 hours left biddings at $30 the last time I looked.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NIB-HOFFMAN-DES...temQQimsxZ20100217?IMSfp=TL100217194016r15847

This is the 100 watt unit I have.

http://www.hoffmanonline.com/produc...02&catID=92645&itemID=3559&searchFor=DAH1001A

Looks like that Brewer's Edge thingy might be my only option - just built a chamber, using the guts from an old mini fridge, and when I set the dimensions I forgot to account for the depth of the insulation! Plenty of vertical height, but there's only 2 inches on each side of my sanke that I'll be fermenting in! (Although the heat lamp might work too... hmmm)

Just finished a build with a regular line voltage thermostat hooked up to a 60 watt light bulb in a foam insulated chamber. Seems to be working great so far, light kicks on and off as needed. Built a small box without a top around the bulb to keep direct light off the fermenters, and used an old double-paned window sash as a door so it's easy to keep an eye on things.

Heat wrap used to prevent pipes from freezing in the winter. Works very nicely. I have problems aging my bottles at too low of temperature so I snake through those too.

What a steal that $341 SS 800 watt unit with stat sold for $34 on ebay.
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=290402347077