douglasbarbin
Well-Known Member
I recently built a fermentation chamber out of an old cabinet and a 1.7 CF mini fridge. It's the typical setup that you see, where the door of the fridge is taken off and the front of the fridge is inside the fermentation chamber, with a computer fan circulating the air around. It's large enough to hold 2 fermenting buckets or carboys.
I think that it's insulated and sealed fairly well. I used 2 layers of blue foam board (1/2" thick per layer, I think...might be 3/4"). I used silicone caulk around the seams, and I have A/C weather-strip foam around the door (the chamber opens from the front, one door only). I am thinking about using some spray foam to seal up anywhere that the caulk might have missed, but I don't expect this to help a whole lot.
So far, with the compressor running all the time, it has maintained a temperature of anywhere from 63 degrees F to 68 degrees. The fermentation chamber is in my shed, and it's summer in Louisiana, so it is HOT in there. It is typically 85 F at the coolest, and often well into the 90's. So, the fermentation chamber seems to stay around 25 degrees below ambient.
Now, I am definitely satisfied with this so far. I bought a Ranco ETC-111000 so the compressor (hopefully) won't run 24/7. However, I can't help but think that I would like to get it a little cooler, maybe even cool enough to lager. My first idea was to augment it with a peltier cooler, but I know that those are terribly inefficient. My next idea was get a window A/C and either put it on the fermentation chamber, or at least in the window of the shed so that I can bring the ambient temperature down a bit. Again, not the most efficient thing in the world.
My latest idea is this: what if I gutted another mini-fridge and put the cooling plate inside the fermentation chamber, to help the first fridge. I know I am working that 1.7 CF fridge pretty hard, and frankly I am surprised that it has cooled so well for having to cool an area so much larger than it was designed for. Perhaps another compressor will help to take some of the load off of the first one.
Any thoughts or comments? I haven't seen any threads where somebody used more than one mini fridge for their fermentation chamber, but I'm thinking it could work. Or am I crazy? Should I be happy with what I have, and move it inside or wait until winter if I want cooler temps?
I think that it's insulated and sealed fairly well. I used 2 layers of blue foam board (1/2" thick per layer, I think...might be 3/4"). I used silicone caulk around the seams, and I have A/C weather-strip foam around the door (the chamber opens from the front, one door only). I am thinking about using some spray foam to seal up anywhere that the caulk might have missed, but I don't expect this to help a whole lot.
So far, with the compressor running all the time, it has maintained a temperature of anywhere from 63 degrees F to 68 degrees. The fermentation chamber is in my shed, and it's summer in Louisiana, so it is HOT in there. It is typically 85 F at the coolest, and often well into the 90's. So, the fermentation chamber seems to stay around 25 degrees below ambient.
Now, I am definitely satisfied with this so far. I bought a Ranco ETC-111000 so the compressor (hopefully) won't run 24/7. However, I can't help but think that I would like to get it a little cooler, maybe even cool enough to lager. My first idea was to augment it with a peltier cooler, but I know that those are terribly inefficient. My next idea was get a window A/C and either put it on the fermentation chamber, or at least in the window of the shed so that I can bring the ambient temperature down a bit. Again, not the most efficient thing in the world.
My latest idea is this: what if I gutted another mini-fridge and put the cooling plate inside the fermentation chamber, to help the first fridge. I know I am working that 1.7 CF fridge pretty hard, and frankly I am surprised that it has cooled so well for having to cool an area so much larger than it was designed for. Perhaps another compressor will help to take some of the load off of the first one.
Any thoughts or comments? I haven't seen any threads where somebody used more than one mini fridge for their fermentation chamber, but I'm thinking it could work. Or am I crazy? Should I be happy with what I have, and move it inside or wait until winter if I want cooler temps?