Replacing mechanical thermostat with STC1000+

[stoneBriar]

I was tired of the two small project boxes fitted with STC's that I was using to control my fermentation chambers. They were clunky and had to many wires coming out. After spending some time on this website and taking some notes I know what I wanted to do. The problem was execution. I knew I didn't have the tools or the experience to do this right. Lucky I am part of an awesome homebrew club and one of the members volunteered to help me out. We removed the old mechanical thermostat on the refrigerator and replaced it with an STC1000+ in the door and ran out a lead for 12v DC to run a fan in the box.

I documented the work over on the club's website with lots of pics. Enjoy!

 

[Takuie]

Nice! Very well done!

 

[Jacinthebox]

cool build...any simplified wire diagram? I was thinking of doing this as well (without rocker switch or fan).

 

[stoneBriar]

That's not quite right. You want to think of the STC as a switch that cuts the power to one leg of the circuit (at least that's the way I as a chemist think about it). So your diagram looks ok for the fermwrap but not for the fridge. Chances are the "grey" wire in your current mechanical thermostat is not neutral but instead goes right to the compressor to power it. I had to run a separate neutral wire from the back. The green ground wire is there to ground the mechanical switch and isn't necessary to get the STC or most heaters to function, so it would be possible to cut that and splice it in to the neutral leg somewhere near where the main power comes in. So your white wire will just go to 8 and your now modified green wire will act as the neutral for the STC (2) and the fermwrap (the other leg of that wire).

Make sense? Fair warning if you follow any of that advice you just took electrical tips from a chemist. There's a reason I couldn't have done this project without my friend David. My best suggestion is to also find a fellow home brewer that's local, has a great workshop, and a track record of not killing themselves with electricity!

 

[Jacinthebox]

Thanks for the help...

It worked out that I had to do exactly what you described...thanks again