Nothing much to show off, but here's how I easily, or more importantly, cheaply moved from a swamp cooler to a temperature controlled fermentation chamber.
I decided on a used chest freezer since they seem to be the most economical option and they can be repurposed to keezers. I didn't want this to take up a lot of space so I went for a 5cf. After 3 weeks looking on Craigslist I saw one advertised for $50 and picked it up for $40. It's a Lowe's Holiday, the older model that holds 3 kegs.
The $20 STC-1000 from mixtea on Ebay took 35 days to arrive. For the enclosure I took 2 single-gang outlet boxes, butted and glued them together and drilled a hole in between. The STC-1000 only fits in some single-gang boxes - I took it to home depot to find one that fit and had to break off a couple plastic tabs in the outlet box.
Wiring the STC-1000 is simple, there's plenty of info on the web. I removed the metal tabs on the outlet in order to have separate cool / heat outlets. On the outlet side I drilled an extra hole for the power supply and sensor wires and routed them through a rubber grommet.
I cut and glued MDF to frame the outlet boxes, and applied a temporary paint job (need to get more black paint). The bottom is Velcro'ed to keep it in place when I open the chamber.
A 75w bulb provides enough warmth to raise the temp when necessary - my basement doesn't get too cold.
Changing from fermentation to cold condition temps and back again is so, so easy with this setup.
The wires are run under the lid for now and I'll probably just leave it that way.
I believe the entire setup was less than $75 and it is working great.
I decided on a used chest freezer since they seem to be the most economical option and they can be repurposed to keezers. I didn't want this to take up a lot of space so I went for a 5cf. After 3 weeks looking on Craigslist I saw one advertised for $50 and picked it up for $40. It's a Lowe's Holiday, the older model that holds 3 kegs.
The $20 STC-1000 from mixtea on Ebay took 35 days to arrive. For the enclosure I took 2 single-gang outlet boxes, butted and glued them together and drilled a hole in between. The STC-1000 only fits in some single-gang boxes - I took it to home depot to find one that fit and had to break off a couple plastic tabs in the outlet box.
Wiring the STC-1000 is simple, there's plenty of info on the web. I removed the metal tabs on the outlet in order to have separate cool / heat outlets. On the outlet side I drilled an extra hole for the power supply and sensor wires and routed them through a rubber grommet.
I cut and glued MDF to frame the outlet boxes, and applied a temporary paint job (need to get more black paint). The bottom is Velcro'ed to keep it in place when I open the chamber.
A 75w bulb provides enough warmth to raise the temp when necessary - my basement doesn't get too cold.
Changing from fermentation to cold condition temps and back again is so, so easy with this setup.
The wires are run under the lid for now and I'll probably just leave it that way.
I believe the entire setup was less than $75 and it is working great.
