Primary warmer

The guy that lived in our house before us used the basement for wine making. So I have a nice set up with minor changes for my beer making but it is cold. The room has been walled in and right now is around 50 degrees. In the summer I would be fine since it reaches 60-65, but what exactly should I do in the winter? I put a 100 watt bulb in the room but it only raised it about 1 degree over 2 hours. Any suggestions that are not too expensive would be great.

You can get a ferm wrap for about $35, or use a small heating pad. Keep an eye on your temps, though, if you're not going to hook them up to a thermostat.

My basement averages around 52F in the winter. I use a large plastic tub full of water, a 100W aquarium heater, and a tiny water pump from Harbor Freight. (This idea was shamelessly stolen/adopted from somewhere on HBT.) Works great. Right now I have a porter in secondary holding steady at 68F. I also use if for bottle conditioning (carbonation) because my house is too cold.

I had to try a couple of times to get a decent aquarium heater. Now I'm using a "Marineland Stealth", the cheaper ones have thermostats that fail.

The tiny pump makes a huge difference. Without it, temps would vary by a few degrees around the tub. With it, everythings constant.

One other thing, wrap the tub in a blanket, set it on something non-concrete (e.g. carboard), and cover it the best you can.

My old house is nice, but never warm. One of these days, I'll take advantage of my cold basement for a bock...