Do you NEED heat in ferment fridge?

[Theheadsn]

I was lucky enough to score a free medium sized up/down fridge off Craigslist. I have a SCT-1000 I'm using and have it pretty much all wired up. I was curious do I NEED to have a heating element inside of the fridge as well for everything to work correctly? I live in California and its pretty much staying around 76 degrees. Where I have the fridge is inside of the house so it'll never drop below 65. Could not having a heat source effect the fridges ability to stay at a reasonable temperature?

Side question, when it comes to the STC it only has the 4 F settings, Main temp set, differential on temp, compressor cool down, and temp offset. If I have it set at say 68 with a differential of 4 degrees would the heat kick on when it got down to 62?

Sorry for what could be asking stupid questions. Just having a hard a time finding the answers I need

 

[Rotor_Head]

I'd guess not....Unless you ever plan on moving.

 

[Kent88]

I doubt a heating element would be useful unless you are keeping saison in there. Ambient temps never below 65F and heat being produced by the fermenting liquids, you should be fine.

Do those devices bypass the regular fridge controls entirely? I put something together with a small fridge, a relay, and an Arduino and the fridge is set to the coldest possible setting. I have a few "failsafes" coded in, so that the fridge doesn't just flicker between on and off all the time, but when I lager I count on the original fridge control settings to be a failsafe as well.

 

[Zepth]

From other thread:

It's fine. It'll be fine. I promise.

I have a keezer on exactly the same setup. STC-1000 with the cooling loop hooked up and a whole lot of nothing on the heat side of things. Since I serve my beer below room temperature I never need it to heat.

Something I noticed is occasionally there will be the cooling "swing" where it will shut the compressor off but the residual cooling effect will drop the temperature just enough to trigger the heat cycle. If it were hooked up I would end up running the heat about 5 minutes after finishing a cooling cycle. If my beer (or in your case chamber) is 0.1 degree below the "trigger" there is no panic to start heating up. This would be a waste of power and inevitably cause more compressor cycles. I have mine set up to "ride the swing" and am perfectly happy.

In the event that you had the same set up the only time I could see it being something that holds you back would be if you were intentionally wanting to ramp temperature, say for a D-rest or ensure attenuation. Most agree that temp ramping is best done gradually. If you don't have a heater set up you can set the new target and walk away, letting it warm up by osmosis of the surrounding air should be gradual enough. Need it faster? Turn off the controller and leave the lid open for a couple hours.

" If I have it set at say 68 with a differential of 4 degrees would the heat kick on when it got down to 62? "
If these were the settings the heat cycle would be triggered at 64, the cool cycle would be triggered at 72.

 

[masaba]

Nope, you only need cooling.

 

[Jawbox0]

There are a couple Belgian recipes where I'm running warmer than 65F by the end of the fermentation. That's really the only reason why you'd need one.

that said, I use a bulb in a canister light fixture on the heat side of my STC 1000 for that along with an always on fan.

As far as the STC, a 4F differential seems like a big swing, I think mines about a degree.

 

[Homercidal]

Where you are, no.

Where I live, generally yes, except for about 5 months out of the year when the sun does the warming for me. 5 months I don't really need cold. 5 months I need both.

So yes or no, depending on which of the 15 months of the year it is...

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

Your fridge is inside = You will never ever need to heat the space, ever

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Your fridge is inside = You will never ever need to heat the space, ever

Oh, if only that were case in the frozen north. My basement JUST got about 58 f last week for the first time since the Kennedy assassination (or so it seemed this winter) It was great for keeping S-04 in check but the rest of time sucked since I do not enjoy making lagers.

 

[LandoLincoln]

I was lucky enough to score a free medium sized up/down fridge off Craigslist. I have a SCT-1000 I'm using and have it pretty much all wired up. I was curious do I NEED to have a heating element inside of the fridge as well for everything to work correctly? I live in California and its pretty much staying around 76 degrees. Where I have the fridge is inside of the house so it'll never drop below 65. Could not having a heat source effect the fridges ability to stay at a reasonable temperature?

Side question, when it comes to the STC it only has the 4 F settings, Main temp set, differential on temp, compressor cool down, and temp offset. If I have it set at say 68 with a differential of 4 degrees would the heat kick on when it got down to 62?

Sorry for what could be asking stupid questions. Just having a hard a time finding the answers I need

It's all about ambient temps.

If you're trying to ferment something at a warmer temperature than what the ambient temps of the room in which your fermentor resides, then yes, you may need a heat source. The fermentation process itself provides some heat (sometimes as much as 10° F over the ambient temps) so depending on the difference between the temp needed and the ambient temperature, you might not.

If you have the temperature of your controller set at 68 with a differential of 4°, then the heater will kick on if it gets below 62 and will stop heating once it reaches 68. If the temperature gets above 72, then it will turn on the cooling until it gets to 68.

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

Oh, if only that were case in the frozen north. My basement JUST got about 58 f last week for the first time since the Kennedy assassination (or so it seemed this winter) It was great for keeping S-04 in check but the rest of time sucked since I do not enjoy making lagers.

I feel for you! Our preferences differ though. A 58 F space is a little too warm for my ales. My temp probe is in a few ounces of water, but I set the temp to 50 F / 10 C ambient max for the first few days at least!

 

[Theheadsn]

Awesome thanks for the info guys I was just kinda losing my mind because all for chamber builds I've noticed most people are using heat. Not as many home brewers it seems here in SoCal then other parts of the country. Whats crazy though is Micro Breweries are popping up EVERYWHERE. So that's kinda nice

 

[bobby4]

-30 in my garage this winter, so I need and use heat

 

[Theheadsn]

ya the forecast for the next few days is supposed to be in the upper 80s lol so is the struggle of socal

 

[DaNewf]

I need heat. Even in summer the night time temperatures where I live can drop much lower than ale fermentation temperatures.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

I feel for you! Our preferences differ though. A 58 F space is a little too warm for my ales. My temp probe is in a few ounces of water, but I set the temp to 50 F / 10 C ambient max for the first few days at least!

Notty takes about 3-weeks to just go through the normal 3-days of "primary fermentation" at 55 f (what the basement was most of the winter). I finally gave up on US-05 at that temp and but it in my closet because after two weeks I could not detect any signs of fermentation.

S-04 at 53 f...still fermented out in a week and was clear in 10 days. That yeast is a champ if you can keep it cool.

 

[kpr121]

Lots of people like to ramp up their temps to above 70+ towards the end of fermentation to help the yeast finish their journey and get those last couple gravity points down. With your setup and ambient temps you will not be able to do that unless the freezer’s insulation is high enough that it can allow the exothermic heat from fermentation naturally ramp up the temps. But at end of fermentation youre not getting a lot of that heat generated.

I live in the northeast and ferment in the basement so I have to deal with the temp swings. What I currently do is try to plug one or the other (cold or heat) depending on ambient and where I’m trying to get the wort to. Like others I don’t like the over and undershooting of temps that wastes electricity. For example, right now ambient is at around 58F, but my batch is in active fermentation and with the insulation would easily get up around 70F+, so I have STC set at 64 and only the cold side plugged in. In a couple days the ferment will slow down and I will be wanting to ramp up to 72F so I will unplug the cold and put in my space heater.

My process is kind of a pain and could be remedied by me not caring about the extra electricity costs of over/under shooting. But I check on my beer-room once or twice daily so it doesn’t take a lot to plug/unplug.

One thing, if youre planning on going the heat route. Don’t use a space heater, it’s too much power and will overshoot your temps. Use something like a lightbulb in paint can or reptile heater, something in the 60-120 watt range. I’m using the space heater right now because its all I have and it typically overshoots temps by upwards of 5 degrees, i.e. once the heater shuts off, temps in the chamber rise 5 degrees higher than setpoint. This would cause the STC to want to cool, and my electric bill to rise.

 

[mauer_62]

you "don't" absolutely need a heat source if your confident on your temps. but a cheep paint can with a light is good insurance.