Floor heated fermentation rooms

Hey guys,

I am planning to build two fermentation rooms (7x5 feet) with floor heating controlled by a PID or BrewPi and connect sensors from the PID/BrewPi to thermowells in the fermentation vessels.

I do not know much about PID or electronics in general so please help me figure out what would work the best.

This build is in an early stage, I am just about ready to install the floor heating and pour the concrete floor.

Now, before I do anything more I would love to get some opinions and ideas.

What are the pros and cons with PID vs BrewPi?

Is floor heating a bad idea? What would be a better solution?

Is there any big challenges in getting this to work?

Thanks

 

Why do you need to heat the fermenters? Most of us are struggling to keep our fementation temps down.

 

I currently live in Sweden. In the stone building I'm brewing the temperature is under 60 F even in the summers. So I have the opposite problem.

 

This is awesome! I live in Oregon, USA just above the 45th parallel and I use an electric wall heater to maintain the temps in my store room/fermenatation chamber during the 3 seasons (summer here is a different situation). I hear very good things about floor heating for upgrades/remodeling projects so I believe you will be very happy with your project and the final outcome. The only thing I would be worried about is the temp swings with the controller, which it sounds like you are all ready looking into with your controller choices. I've noticed with my electric heaters the temp can swing easily between 5-6 F. I bet if you focus on using more precise controllers you can easily dial in your temps to within 2-3 F temp swings! Awesome! You will be fermenting very good beer ( ;

 

Thanks for the reply ☺

Temperature swings will be one of the biggest challenges.

How good would a PID or brewPi compensate for the concrete floor staying varm after the temperature is at the target?

 

I guess I'd be worried about the size of the space compared to the size of the fermentation vessels. If you have a large space with small fermentation vessels, a temp sensor in the room might not even recognize that your carboy is 8C over/under where you want. I think that's why many ferm chambers I see are close to the size of the vessel - more efficient, and better visibility on the actual fermentation temperature. You may already have plans for dealing with that, but it's the first thing that popped into my simple head. Would love to see pictures of your application though!

Oops! I see you're using thermowells. Still, it's an awful large volume to change temp on if the ferm vessels are small.

 

Thanks for your input!

True, I'm only brewing 10 gallon batches, but planning to get a bigger system in the future.

But if I build four smaller rooms, is there PID's that can handle four different temperatures and sensors? Can brewPi?

 

I'm not one to provide 'answers' when they're really 'guesses', so I'll qualify my responses. I have no experience with brewPi so I can't speak to that. I did a quick search and found this - http://www.tc.co.uk/products/multi_channel_temperature_controllers.htm, but I have no experience with that either, but it is intriguing. International company too, so maybe better shipping options.

In short, finding that link shows there are controllers out there for your application, just unsure of the cost and setup.

 

Thanks for the reply ��

I have read some more about PID and BrewPi. There is no problem running four or more sensors on either one.

what you said about the size of the rooms made me rethink the my plans.

The new plan is four smaller rooms with their own floor heating cable's controlled by a PID or BrewPi.

 

Well, don't let me talk you out of a cool plan! I just question it's efficiency. Have you ever used heat mats or heat wraps? I ferment in my basement (in Minnesota) and use the carboy wraps and a Johnson Controls temp controller to keep them from getting below recommended fermentation temps. How about using a chest freezer? Maybe even something like a 'son of fermentation chamber' with an incandescent lightbulb wired inline with the fan instead of ice?