Do not carbonate THIS way!

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Grinder12000

Grinder12000

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Well - since I live in a cold climate I needed a way to carbonate my beer in a warm room. I had the perfect solution.

Having an unfinished basement I also had an unfinished bathroom. I would make that room into a carbonation room with a tiny space heater to keep the tiny room at 70 degrees. I put a big blanket over the door and all was well.

That started in November.

Since November my electric usage is averaging 72% MORE then the previous year.

One space heater can DOUBLE your total electric usage for a house. My electric bill April 2008 was $74 for April 2009 $154.

Back to the drawing board.
 
Holy Crap!!! Is it running Full Time??? Put the space heater through a temperature controller. THe temp controller may cost you $50, But appearently you'd make that up in a few months.
 
Holy crap! You should look into a fermenting fridge. See my side-by-side link in my sig for how to hook up a heater and a cooler. One month of turning off that heater would pay for the whole project!!! :eek:
 
Get an old fridge or freezer that no longer works, and put an incandescent light bulb in there with a thermostat. Just cover the beer so no light gets at it.
 
We use a spaceheater upstairs in the winter so we can turn down the costly gas heat at night and just keep the BR warm. I did not see such a crazy spike in my bill. I mean, its always more int he winter, but not twice as much

What kind of heater was it?!
 
I had the same shocking issue a few months back. Fermenting in an old cellar in the basement. Decided that I wanted to keep the temps right around 70F ambient for conditioning the bottles. Had that bad boy running for a month before realizing that I now had to pay a $300 electric bill. Granted, we did have another space heater upstairs to keep us warm as well, but that was more than 3 times as much as we normally spend. Everything else in the house is all natural gas, so needless to say that was quite a shocker of a bill when we got it.
 
it was a space heater with a thermostat. The basement was 59 degrees but the bathroom was a nice 70 (cats loved it).

The people at the Electric company said that one space heater can double your total KWh we went from 675 to 1379 in April.

chum - maybe because you were not suing it 24/7 ???
 
I used to use one occasionally when I was working on something in the basement for a couple of hours. Because they're very inefficient, I went for a different solution when moving my computer/home office down there. We set up an electric wall heater that's wired into the 220 line, and has a thermostat you can turn off entirely. Home Depot / Lowe's should have them. Right now we have one 6' unit, and will probably add a second for next winter so that it heats up faster and doesn't have to be on constantly.

Bear in mind, this still uses some more electricity, but overall it'll be a lot more efficient than those little ceramic things.
 
aw man, just using a space heater? I thought you were going to talk about how you shouldn't use bicycle pump, heart monitor and exhalations to carbonate.

Thread does not deliver.
 
If there is a room in your house that is somewhat warm, just putting your beer to condition on top of highest cabinet in the room will make a pretty significant difference in temperature as opposed to the floor.
 
EvilTOJ said:
aw man, just using a space heater? I thought you were going to talk about how you shouldn't use bicycle pump, heart monitor and exhalations to carbonate.

Thread does not deliver.
Click to expand...

+1, I thought I was gonna see some bottle bomb aftermath.

For conditioning and fermentation I use an aquarium heater in a water bath in a cooler. Probably about 1/10 of the wattage of a space heater and once you heat the water up to 70, it holds heat well.
 
Hotspur said:
I used to use one occasionally when I was working on something in the basement for a couple of hours. Because they're very inefficient, I went for a different solution when moving my computer/home office down there. We set up an electric wall heater that's wired into the 220 line, and has a thermostat you can turn off entirely. Home Depot / Lowe's should have them. Right now we have one 6' unit, and will probably add a second for next winter so that it heats up faster and doesn't have to be on constantly.

Bear in mind, this still uses some more electricity, but overall it'll be a lot more efficient than those little ceramic things.
Click to expand...

Electric space heaters are 100% efficient, as are the larger wall units. Because 100% of the energy used in an electric heater is converted to heat. The only way to do better with electric heat is a heat pump that moves heat and can therefore be > 100% efficient in heating a house/room.

Don't buy into expensive electric being more efficient. The only thing the may do better is more evenly distribute the heat, or have better thermostats, or look nicer.

However better insulation and a smaller space (such as a cooler or old fridge) is much cheaper to heat.

Craig
 
dude you just need to start kegging and forget trying to keep it warm to carbonate it - you could have gotten a kick ass kegging setup for what you've wasted on electricity
 
CBBaron said:
Electric space heaters are 100% efficient, as are the larger wall units. Because 100% of the energy used in an electric heater is converted to heat. The only way to do better with electric heat is a heat pump that moves heat and can therefore be > 100% efficient in heating a house/room.

Don't buy into expensive electric being more efficient. The only thing the may do better is more evenly distribute the heat, or have better thermostats, or look nicer.

However better insulation and a smaller space (such as a cooler or old fridge) is much cheaper to heat.

Craig
Click to expand...

Well, I guess I wasn't quite clear on what I meant by efficient, because you're right in that 100% of it is turned into heat, with either an electric baseboard or a ceramic heater. However, because the baseboard uses 240 instead of 120, it consumes less to heat the same space.
 
CBBaron said:
Electric space heaters are 100% efficient, as are the larger wall units. Because 100% of the energy used in an electric heater is converted to heat. The only way to do better with electric heat is a heat pump that moves heat and can therefore be > 100% efficient in heating a house/room.

Don't buy into expensive electric being more efficient. The only thing the may do better is more evenly distribute the heat, or have better thermostats, or look nicer.

However better insulation and a smaller space (such as a cooler or old fridge) is much cheaper to heat.

Craig
Click to expand...


I was under the impression that almost everything will have *some* losses associated the conversion process, but the electric heater seems to be an exception. I think I can call it a day, I learned something. :)
 
Wow, that makes for some spendy brew! I too keep a space heater (one of those oil filled radiator types) in my carb room but I don't think my electric bill went up by even $10/mo. The room is small though and on the same level as the rest of the house. Even at the lowest power (600W) setting and the thermostat on 2 it keeps that little room 70-75.

On the bright side, you can easily justify a keg system - "Honey, it will pay for itself in 2 months"....hehe
 
I don't think I ever want to keg - I can not see it at all. I would need 14 kegs on tap LOL

I have 14 different brews I can drink at the moment.

The problem was that this little room was cold - same size room upstairs would have been perfect. Closet perhaps.

The house is warmer now anyway - it was a winter problem that can be fixed next year.

spendy brew? naa - not MY money - it was the "house" money - completely separate. :)
 

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