Diy fermentation chamber

[kev]

I all. I was thinking about building a fermentation chamber underneath my basement steps. It is already enclosed. All I would have to do is create an access door and a window for a 5000 btu a/c unit. I understand thAt I would also need to insulate and seal the *#~• out of it.

My questions are: is it worth it? Does it ( this type of set up) work well? What troubles did you run into (if you have done this)? How cold can you get this space before you have to worry about the a/c unit freezing up?

I live in a small house with no storage so buying a fridge and using that is out. Not to mention that I will need room for at least three fermenters. As always thank you in advance for your input.

Cheers
Kev

 

[thadass]

It's colder more often than warm where I am so for cooling I just use a setup involving frozen soda bottles and a fan in the summer, but I built my chamber under some stairs and it works great!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/under-stairs-fermentation-chamber-377739/

rigid foam insulation, foamboard adhesive, foil tape, and a small amount of expanding foam (I hate that stuff so much)

 

[acidrain]

It should work fine. The only down side is the heat being dumped into the basement. Could be a problem in the summer if it gets hot in your neck of the woods.

 

[kev]

It should work fine. The only down side is the heat being dumped into the basement. Could be a problem in the summer if it gets hot in your neck of the woods.

Yea I thought of that. It does get pretty hot around Philly in the summer. If I do this I will install a thermostat in the chamber in the hopes that the window unit won't run constantly. I will also have to rig up a drip pan and condensate pump also.
My big question is: what temperatures can I expect to achieve with this set up? I'm hoping that you or anyone else can answer this for me. I would be pretty p off if I went through all this trouble and found that I can only get 5 degrees out of it. Thanks to all that reply.

Cheers
Kev

 

[BigFloyd]

I like the simple, effective and inexpensive solution of putting together an outlet box with an STC-1000 and plugging a used refrigerator into it. It'll give me whatever temperature I need.

 

[bleme]

With a CoolBot you can get down to 36F. You can do the same yourself with a little ingenuity. Check out the CoolBot website to see what brands of air conditioners work best.