New idea for a fermentation chamber?

[TomRep]

I see a LOT of fermentation chamber builds on here. Most are quite nice and will do exactly what they need to do. However, in every single one I see come to a finish, they all have the same drawback. The heat that is generated by the cooling apparatice (fridge, air conditioner) is going to waste. I came up with a chamber design that, if works properly, will cool the fermentation side and use the heat to either carb cases of bottles or do a warm fermentation on say, a saison. I built the chamber in an "L" shape. The lower portion of the "L" is going to be the cooled part, the upright section will be the warm side. The warm side has the ability to hold roughly 30 cases of bottles without the cooling source installed. Depending on what I use for the source and the dimensions it has, I may have to build a hump in the lower section of the warm side. Above the cool side chamber is a slatted countertop able to hold about 12-14 6 gallon carboys for ambient temp fermentation.

rough framing of the chamber with a makeshift countertop due to needing room

chamber skinned with 1x4's and the slatted countertop installed

coat of stain on the skin

made up some 1x4 slatted doors to match the whole thing. First door made and hung.

set of doors on the cool side

whole chamber showing both doors on the warm side and set of doors on the cool side

 

[TomRep]

Overall, the chamber is quite large and probably won't work well for most people. Luckily I have a dedicated brew room which will hold everything I need and will provide and are to brew, transfer, bottle and/or keg. I am working on building a Kal clone all electric build which will be going on the wall to the right of the chamber. I have the doors stained now with one coat of polyurothane. Plan to do another one or two coats on the doors as well as 3-4 coats on the whole thing before I start on the actual cooling/heating device.
Tom

 

[StMarcos]

Cool. You could put the hot side outside in a Wisconsin winter for ales, and the cool side in Hawaii for lagers in the summer. jk nice work

 

[TomRep]

I finally have the doors stained and poly'ed as well as a coat of poly on the chamber itself. Hopefully get a second coat on the chamber tomorrow and the outside will hopefully be done.

 

[TomRep]

Doors on. I need to do a bunch more coats of poly on the countertop portion yet. Then some insulation and a sacrificial AC unit and we should be rolling.

 

[Cosper123]

I don't understand how you can maintain a controlled temp on the warm side. The cool side will be controlled via temp controller...I assume...but the warm side will be modified and maintained by what? While the temp controller is focused on the cold side, the warm side will flucuate wildly.

 

[TomRep]

I don't really intend to have the warm side stay at a consistent temperature all the time, just when I ferment on that side (which will be rare). I do however plan to put some vents on the top of the warm side that I can adjust to help control the temperature a little bit. When I ferment on the warm side, I will more then likely switch the temp probe from the controller and have some kind of removeable panel that I can install to make the warm side smaller/shorter (otherwise the AC unit would need to run for an excessive time to heat the whole area).
Tom

 

[TomRep]

So my plans changed with this beast. I already have a lagering chest freezer and decided I didn't really need another cool fermentation area. I did, however, need a warm chamber. I insulated the right (short) portion of the chamber and put a small space heater inside hooked up to my controller. I threw a saison in there this weekend that I started at 68° with and will crank up to 80°+ over the next week. Chamber is holding the temperature very well with the heater hardly running at all. I have the temp probe for the controller in my blow off tube water, so I should say that is holding temperature. This is mainly a trial period that, if it works properly, will be finished off in a nicer way. I will post some pictures up tonight of what I have right now.
Tom