Sizing fridge

Ok. I built a small fermentation chamber that will hold two sanke fermentors and two cornies. It will hold 48* consantly running, so now I need to buy a bigger fridge to see if I can get the temperature to drop and have the fridge cycle on and off.

So, with that being said, is there a way to determine the size fridge needed for the space cooled? The chamber is 44x30x18 (l x h x d).

Thanks,

Eric

In a word, no. The biggest factor — far and away — will be the efficiency of your insulation. Without accurately quantifying that, there's no way to predict how much cooling power you will need. In fact, if you get that thing sealed up better, I'd bet that even a relatively small fridge like the one you've got now would be able to keep two cornies and two sankes well below 48º.

Yeah, that is what I thought. The entire thing is insulated with R-32 and sealed with HVAC sliver tape. There is no cool air moving out or hot air moving in. I pulled the a sanke out to rack it over and noticed the freezer was an ice block, so maybe I need some air movement inside the chamber to circulate the cooling capacity.

uabericm said:

Yeah, that is what I thought. The entire thing is insulated with R-32 and sealed with HVAC sliver tape. There is no cool air moving out or hot air moving in. I pulled the a sanke out to rack it over and noticed the freezer was an ice block, so maybe I need some air movement inside the chamber to circulate the cooling capacity.

Click to expand...

Indeed...I forgot to mention air circulation. Rig up some fans and baffles and you'll get a big jump in efficiency. Also, keep your heat exchanger defrosted. Good luck!