Lump of steel to help control temps ?

[Stag-Brewing]

I`m building my fermenting fridge and I am using a fabricated metal frame to mount a mechanism which lets me slide my conical right out, to do trub dumps and stuff.
Anyway I was wondering if the metal frame would help to regulate the temps,
which got me thinking, why don`t we all use a big chunk of steel placed into the fridge ?
It will take while to bring the lump of steel to the desired temp and therefore it should retain that temp for longer in between the hot/cold cycles of the freezer/heater controller.

 

[chickens4life]

some people do that with jugs of water.

I don't think steel would work as well be cause it has such a low specific heat (a smaller volume of water will provide more temp stability).

Although I don't think a it really matters what the air temp does between cooling cycles, the wort in most cases is a large enough thermal mass that it won't change significantly in temp.

 

[Stag-Brewing]

nice one.
Thanks for that.

 

[beerkrump]

Steel has a much lower specific heat pound for pound, but is pretty close to water when you look at the volumetric heat capacity.

But, that said, water is better, cheaper, and lighter than steel. And, as chicken noted, your wort is about 95% water and has enough thermal to regulate itself as long as your temperature swings are not crazy.

 

[Stag-Brewing]

I got my answers quicker and better than google.
HBT rocks.
thanks again.

 

[the_bird]

A big chunk of steel is also apt to become a big chunk of rust, unless you've got a nice lump of stainless kicking around. In my fermentation chamber (an old dorm fridge), I hold the metal freezer shelf (which contains the cooling coils) up and out of the way with an old length of threaded rod; that thing literally drips rust. There's so much humidity in there, it rusts out like crazy.