fermentation fridge heat source?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

maida7

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2009
Messages
2,826
Reaction score
53
Location
Asheville, NC
I've set up a fridge for fermenting. It's controlled by a dual ranco unit. The cooling is a no brainer but I'm looking for some advice on the heating.

Right now I have a light bulb in there and it's working fine. But I wonder about the effect the bright light will have on the fermenter. I protected the fermenter with a dark tee shirt but is this enough? Would I be better off with something like a heating pad? What do you use? What do you recommend?

Thanks!
 
Incandescent bulbs put out very little ultra-violet. I use an old hard disk & enclosure. It produces about 25 watts of heat and has a built-in fan.
 
Incandescent bulbs put out very little ultra-violet. I use an old hard disk & enclosure. It produces about 25 watts of heat and has a built-in fan.

What is an old hard disk? Like a computer hard drive? I did not know those made much heat. How do you power it?

Also, with the temp high and the fridge door closed, I could see things getting kinda funky in there. Any tips on keeping things fresh? Do you have any problems with mold?
 
I used to buy these when I had chameleons, I don't remember them being expensive, but they sure did heat up nicely!

emitterclose.jpg
 
I use a little space heater with built-in thermostat to warm my chest freezer during the winter.
 
I use a heating pad. When I have just one thing fermenting, I'll wrap the heating pad around the carboy. If I'm doing two at a time, I'll just leave it in the fridge. Seems to work great.
 
What is an old hard disk? Like a computer hard drive? I did not know those made much heat. How do you power it?

Right, old SCSI disk. They pull 20-25 watts. The enclosure has a power supply.
 
I'm planning on using some incandescents unless there's another easy solution. I was thinking about ripping the defrost heating element out of the freezer and using that but not sure if it would be worth the trouble
 
I'm planning on using some incandescents unless there's another easy solution. I was thinking about ripping the defrost heating element out of the freezer and using that but not sure if it would be worth the trouble

Sounds like a heating pad or a terrarium heater would work very well without the risk of exposing the beer to harmful light. Although there is debate over how harmful the light actual is. The rock heater I posted a link to is very affordable at under ten bucks. You could probably pick up something like that at any decent pet shop. I think a temp controller would be needed for most any of these. The controller is the expensive part.
 
I built a temp controller out of a thermostat, it will switch a 20A load so that's not an issue. I usually wrap my fermenters in black shirts but would it be reasonable to put an incandescent in a shoebox or something with a fan on it?
 
Back
Top