Anyone use a thermoelectric (peltier) cooler/heater for fermenting?

[kickflip_mj]

There has to be a better way to bring the temps down

 

[user 125772]

Pretty cool devices.
I experimented with these devices for my 14.5 gallon Blichmann conical ...I the end, I ditched the idea as it didn't appear to have enough BTU to get the job done . As I recall, I had 2x230Watt devices.

I think it was dinnerstick that said "you use a lot of power to make a lot of heat and a little bit of cool." ...and that just about sums it up.

I ended up going with a dehumidifier instead

 

[marcb]

There has to be a better way to bring the temps down

The small glycol setup I have for the twin 240l conicals works great. For my 15g conical I dig the twin Peltier cooling on the Morebeer setup. I think most smaller conicals will be fine with a single Peltier assembly and once it's at temp it doesn't run all the time. If you've got the space when you build the walk-in make a few chambers and use them for your sankes/fermenters

 

[bemerritt]

Any recommendation on wattage of peltiers needed or about a maximum ambient of 95 degrees?

 

[srice]

That would depend on how much insulation you have on your fermenter as well as the thermal mass (how much are you fermenting).

I'm about ready to move out of my chest freezer and convert it over to it's original purchase intent - a keezer - and I am looking for options for fermenting. I like the idea of directly heating/cooler the fermenter instead of placing the fermenter in a conditioned environment. My planned fermentation space is in my basement and never exceeds 80F. The idea of a Peltier heating/cooling setup is very appealing to me especially if I start fermenting in Sankes.

 

[bemerritt]

That would depend on how much insulation you have on your fermenter as well as the thermal mass (how much are you fermenting).

I'm about ready to move out of my chest freezer and convert it over to it's original purchase intent - a keezer - and I am looking for options for fermenting. I like the idea of directly heating/cooler the fermenter instead of placing the fermenter in a conditioned environment. My planned fermentation space is in my basement and never exceeds 80F. The idea of a Peltier heating/cooling setup is very appealing to me especially if I start fermenting in Sankes.

I'm looking at 10 gallon batches. I already have two wine coolers set up with a carboy in each. I was hoping to get away from a big fridge for the conical. I'm thinking somewhere in the 500 watts range should work. But that is purely a guess.

And the 95 ambient would happen once a year at most. Usually the high would be in the 80's.

 

[srice]

I'm looking at 10 gallon batches. I already have two wine coolers set up with a carboy in each. I was hoping to get away from a big fridge for the conical. I'm thinking somewhere in the 500 watts range should work. But that is purely a guess.

And the 95 ambient would happen once a year at most. Usually the high would be in the 80's.

Check out this thread - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/how-much-heat-does-fermentation-produce-145767/

It looks like at most you would need about 75w to take care of the fermentation generated heat (probably less, but let's be conservative.) You would definitely want to insulate to avoid your ambient temps of up to 90. A 12710 Peltier has a Qmax of 96w @ a 50C hot side temp while running 10.5 amps @ 17.4 volts. I would want 2 if not 3 of these to try get ahead of any chamber heating - either fermentation or ambient. I an thinking about trying to build these modular so that I can add or subtract modules until I can get my system running how I want it. The biggest issue will be finding the power supplies to run these.

 

[bemerritt]

wow, that's much less wattage than i would think.

i have a bunch of these left over from a previous project

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OWUP5U/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

they come in all variations of amps. very easy to wire up and cost effective in my mind.

another power option would be to try and find old laptop bricks, but im not sure how many amps those are.

 

[electrolight]

So I don't know much about brewing... But I know alot about peltiers. Peltier's have an efficienty of ~5% where as traditional carnot cycle machines (ac unit, refrigerator etc) have an efficiency of ~25%... Both seem rather low but if you notice, your electric bill will feel it when you have a 5x more efficient unit cooling your setup. A cheap window unit is about 100$ and peltier coolers and their respective power supply powerful enough to cool several gallons, is likely to cost alot more. Just my 2 cents.

 

[bemerritt]

If you had 500 watts running 24/7 I think it would cost about $50 per month. Could be way off. So if you drop that down to 250 and only run it 8. Hours a day, you are looking at closer to 8 per month. Not too bad. Obviously come winter months you'll only be paying for heating which would be much cheaper.

 

[kosmokramer]

Bringing back a thread from dead.

I'm curious as to why people are using Peltiers to cool and then a separate heater. Is this just to avoid the complexity of reversing the polarity of the Peltiers or is there another reason that I am missing?

i recently picked up a 27g heated and cooled b3 version used and am interested in putting an additional cooling unit in the cone in case i want to do ten gallon batches. From the best i can tell the reason the dont come with a polarity switch is that the chillers are mounted hi to deal with rising heat and the heater is mounted low to deal with the colder temps in the cone...when i install my additional chiller on the cone i will be trying to work something out to flip the polarity so i can remove the standard heating pad and use that peltier for both heating and cooling

 

[acidrain]

I can't believe this thread is still alive...
I ended up using a Gatorade display 'fridge and STC1000 controller. It displays my converted and polished Sanke fermenters nicely, and with a flip of a switch cold crashes without moving them.
Cold crashing without moving the fermenter is a big reason I didn't go with the peltiers.