Fermentation Chamber Getting Too Cold

Hello everyone. I ferment in buckets inside an old fridge with a jhonson temp controller which works great during the summer. But now that winter is upon us I find it hard to keep it above 65 degrees. I usually like to raise the temp to around 68 towards the end of fermenting, but it just won't go that high with the cooler temps outside. Any idea how I can raise the temp inside the fridge just a tad? Thanks.

 

Is the Johnson Controller the basic one or the digital A419 style? The digital I believe has the ability to heat and cool with an internal switching. If that is the case you could use or buy a heating pad, a brew belt, and Ive seen a project someone had done with a light bulb and tin can to act as a heater. If the controller you have will not control heating I would look into getting and building a STC-1000 controller which controls both cooling and heating.

 

It's just the basic dial controller. I might try the light bulb idea.

 

I do the light bulb in a can and it works well. If you get a heat lamp bulb (lowes/HD) it will be more energy efficient!
Wire in a small computer fan to go on when the bulb does to help circulate the heat better

 

A string of Christmas lights works well.

 

I heard that in Alaska they bypass the door switch on the fridge light to keep the milk from freezing. The punchline was that a friend of a friend worked for Sears and made a lot of money selling refrigerators to eskimos.

It won’t take much to heat a fridge. You could try different wattage bulbs until you get the right size that doesn’t make the compressor run too much.

You would waste a little electricity, but you’d be saving the cost of an additional controller.