Lagering Idea

I live in MN and have about 5 months of lager temps in my garage. I'm considering building some sort of chamber out of 2x4's, plywood, and rough insulation as a space in my garage to store kegs of beer that are lagering or in need of cold storage. If I wired up an STC-1000 to a heating element, would that work to maintain temps of 35-38 F in the garage all winter? Anything I shoudl be concerned about from a safety perspective?

 

I am also interested in Ontario, Canada! Answer????

 

My wife's from Minnesota. We've haven't been there in winter for years. This post reminds me why...

 

Sounds like a great use of "too cold to do anything" climate.
A simple lightbulb-in-a-can heating element works great. Keep it away from combustables and use a fan.

 

An "alarm thermometer" would definitely be on my list.
The concrete floor will be colder than ambient air temperature, and don't forget to watch for drafts. You may need a small fan for air circulation.

 

Hi
I have been in the electric heating business over 30 years and have a few concerns.
First, simply wiring up an element of some sort may or may not heat the space depending on enclosure design.it simply depends on heat loss of the enclosure as compared to the wattage of the element.
A homemade design such as this could certainly create insurance issues if something does go wrong, what you are making is not UL ( or CSA ) approved and if it is determined to be the cause of a fire, it allows your insurance company to simply walk away from any liability. All space heaters have thermal high limit cutouts incorporated into their design, the idea is that the electric power to the element is disconnected in event of an abnormal over temperature situation so at least there is some kind of safety built in. Unfortunately a space heater may have clearance requirements that may not suit your enclosure design, again not adhering to label warnings or installation instructions may get you into trouble.
I would suggest perhaps an alternate method, perhaps an approved heating belt around each carboy?

 

Should work fine, just buy one of these
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003XDTWN2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Rather than dealing with a stupid paint can and light that gets so hot you cant even touch it. I don't know how people use those, every time it came on i'd be afraid it would start a fire. And in fact im pretty sure one of them did if i remember correctly.

Especially when something like the Lasco heater works so well and has a fan built in so you can keep your entire chamber set rather than boiling temperatures at the can radiating out to colder ones at other spots in the chamber.

 

While i tend to agree with kayakman from safety concerns (I work for an NRTL-same as UL or CSA), depending what you are actually trying to accomplish, the safety concerns can be mitigated. THIS WILL NOT HELP YOU ON ANY INSURANCE CLAIMS AS YOUR HOMEMADE SYSTEM IS NOT LISTED/CERTIFIED.

If you are trying to heat the entire garage, I have no guidance for you. However if you are trying to heat a "chamber" for your carboys you can use foam insulation to reduce heat loss and use a metal enclosed (vented) GROUNDED sheathed heating element with a fan to circulate the heated air. control this with a thermostat or temp controller. This will not control "fault temps," but that can be limited with a thermal cutout in-line with the heater.

This really shouldn't be a practical fire hazard IF LIMITED to normal lager/fermentation temps (35-80F). You can send me a PM about this if want more info.

 

Consider using something like

http://www.reptiledirect.com/ceramicheatemitters.aspx?gclid=CMPfprPL4boCFQpnOgodyBEAoQ

Im not sure how hot it may get. But its meant for heating.

 

Again why buy a 18 dollar Ceramic bulb when you can buy the entire Lasco Ceramic heater that has auto high thermal shutoff, a built in fan, among other features for the same price on Amazon, thats not even counting the fact your spending another $5-10+ on wiring and non plastic sockets for that reptile bulb, and another dollar or two on a fan...

All you do is plug it into your temp controller heat socket and your done, no DIY required.

Im all about DIY, a lot of my stuff is, but i have a feeling some people doing it to save $2 and ending up with far inferior products get a bit ridiculous on this forum sometimes

When it comes to safety and my house burning down, i'll spend the extra $2 to get a commercial product.

 

Been there, done that. My formula:
1) Insulated box (ply + fire-resistant aluminium insulation)
2) STC100 temperature controller (ebay)
3) Hair dryer.

Glue the output end of the hair drier into a hole in the side of the box. Use STC to trigger the hairdrier. I put a "deflector" in between the hair-dryer output and fermenter to keep the hot air from directly impinging on the fermenter.

Bingo - forced air warmer. Mine could keep a lager going at -30C (AKA really f___ing cold) if kept out of the wind in the garage. Was good to -15C if left outside on the balcony.

Pro-tip: don't use SWIMBO's hair-dryer.

Bryan

 

I've got one of these hooked to an STC1000

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lasko-Products-My-Heat-Personal-Heater/16503222

It has it's own over heat safety's built in and has a ceramic element.

 

I made a box for a couple batches, but ended up making doing a side by side fridge conversion with one side as a ferm chamber. I rigged one of those walmart heaters into it to warm it up all winter. No problem maintaining temps all winter in single digits.

Plus if you watch out on CL for a side by side for free, it would probably be cheaper.

 

Works great, cheap, won't burn your house down:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001OVBEEK/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

Cool. What is your ambient temperature? Do you know how cold you can go with the setup and have the rope keep up. To compare, the hair drier I've been using is ~1500W...

Bryan

 

Ambient is low 60's. I had the ferm chamber over 100 after I built it to make sure the cable worked. Didn't take long to get there.