Fermentation chiller woes

Well, its that time of year again.

The temps are not really high or low.

As a result, my chiller box is at that weird spot where it is too cold to chill, not cold enough to add heat.

As a result, trying to keep a constant temp is a real chore.

Leaving the lid off for a few hours in the morning, adding ice during the day, then shutting down the fans at night to maintain a temp overnight.

This is a lot like work !

It is at times like this I envy you fridge guys.

Cheers,

knewshound

http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF

Will work both ways. Use Ice or just warm bottles of water. Hell with a active fermentation going ya may not even need the warm water if ya need to warm it up a bit. The heat from the fermentation may be enuff but the bottles of water will atleast help balance everything out

Thats the problem, it is 75 during the day and 66 at night.

Trying to keep 70 is TOUGH.

Cheers,

knewshound

I can understand a big outside temp swing now, but don't you have someplace that is a little more stable? My basement hasn't wavered from 68*F more than a degree or two.

I like the idea I saw on a recent post for a water-stablized fermenting tub. If you need cooling, put a cooler of ice water next to the tub and use a cheap aquarium pump to cirulate fermenting tub warm water with ice cold water in the cooler. Of course you'll need some kind of temp controller to do this but I found one on Ebay for $25 shipped. This would be genius during the winter if you live in a cold climate. Imagine having the cold container outside. You'd have to use a bit of antifreeze in the coolant, but you'd never have to add new ice.

If you need heat, put a waterbed heater under the tub. They have their own thermostat that goes from 50-90*F if I remember my teenage years correctly. People are always throwing away waterbeds.

I suppose you can run both heating and cooling if your swings are really that bad.


Bobby

Sadly, that is about as stable as it gets temp wise about now.

I use a 15 watt light bulb in the half that the ice goes in when it gets really cool. It works just dandy.

It is at that tipping point between warm and cool that is vexing me.

Oh well, just another chore on my list I'm afraid.

Cheers,

knewshound

If you leave it closed up, where would it stabilise? I use an unplugged refer, on the patio. it stayed about 72. Beats letting it get to 90 in the summer. If I were you, I'd guess it would stabilise at 72, then I would only worry about coolin it a bit. Trust the insulation to keep it from fluctuating wildly.

Unless you trying to be anal? then RDWHAHB?