Got my STC 1000 hooked up and it works great for both heating and cooling for my fermentation chamber (freezer). I would like to hook up a second outlet though that will power a 12v computer fan/convertor that will turn on if the freezer or heater comes on. If I just wire in a second outlet and break the bridge then I would have to have 2 convertors obviously I have to break the bridge otherwise it will complete the circuit for both the heater and the freezer when one or the other is triggered so how do I wire this up so I only have to use one convertor that recieves power when either the freezer or heater is triggered. I'm figuring there has got to be some type of relay or some thing to accomplishh this but I'm not a electrical engineer but can follow instructions. Please help fix my Second outlet STC woes !
STC 1000 second outlet woes
- Thread starter bryan75
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Beernik
Well-Known Member
I've been thinking about doing something similiar. But I was going to wire one to be on all the time and have the computer fan run all the time.
heckels
Well-Known Member
The fix is relatively simple. If you want one outlet for the fan that will kick on for both heating or cooling you just need to add a pigtail on each the hot wire for the heating side and another pigtail for the hot line on the cooling side.
One side of the pigtail goes to their respective outlet for the freezer or the heater.
The other pigtail for each goes to your other outlet. You don't need to break the connection between the two poles on the second outlet since the hot lines are isolated by the pigtails.
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One side of the pigtail goes to their respective outlet for the freezer or the heater.
The other pigtail for each goes to your other outlet. You don't need to break the connection between the two poles on the second outlet since the hot lines are isolated by the pigtails.
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heckels
Well-Known Member
Yeah, never mind. I drew this up and I'm horribly wrong
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I have to ask why you just want the fan to come on when either the heat or cooling come on? I have my 12 volt computer fan running all the time to keep the air circulating around the carboys / kegs. Doing that is easy. Trying to do that with each leg of your hot and cold would take some work and more thinking than I can do.
^ what he said.
Or just wire one outlet for cool, one for heat and put two fans in. Or pick which one you want to kick the fan on.
Or just wire one outlet for cool, one for heat and put two fans in. Or pick which one you want to kick the fan on.
My fermentation/lagering chamber (freezer) is eventually going to have 2 additional chambers added to it. All 3 chambers will be controlled by seperate STC 100's. The lagering/coldcrashing chamber will be the freezer it's self and I'll maintain it at 34 degrees. Through the collar I am going to run 2 tubes, one sucking cold air and going into the adjoing chamber and and 1 drawing from the chamber at the top and going back into the freezer a little way down. I didn't think it was necessay to run a air circulation fan all the time in each.chamber. This is going to be in my basement, 50 degrees in winter and at most 70 degrees in the summer. During the winter I'll cap off the exchange tubes because the side chambers will mostly need to be heated unless I'm fermenting a lager. Eventually if this works the way I'm anticipating I want to enclose it all and make a cabinet out of it that will be estetically pleasing and can be kept on the main floor living area when we move. I'm going to build one add on fermentation chamber first and see how well everything works bedore adding a second. Basically I want the freezer in the middle and a fermentation chamber on either side of it. I'm basically building the mother of all fermentation chambers but horizontally and not vertically. All the air movement will be controlled by 12V computer fans because their inexpensive and will work just fine for what I need.
Basically, freezer for lagering or cold crashing one Carboy with some bottles kept cold ready for drinking at all times, save room in household fridge, and a chamber just large enough for one carboy with blowoff tube on each side of it with front door. I want to ferment my beers at a constant temprature and be able to adjust that temprature at will. I know I probably won't be able to cold crash in the fermentation chambers but all I have to do when I want to is put the carboy in the freezer. I'm also sick of hearing the wife complain that the bubbling blow off kept her awake because she could hear it in my closet !compl
Beernik
Well-Known Member
I think you have to have three controllers for your plan because even if you have two outlets for cold and two outlets for heat, you still only have one probe controlling them.
Yes I am planning on having each seperate chamber controlled by it's own controller. So eventually when I've built all the chambers there is going to be a STC-1000 mounted in the front of each one, so they are all independent of one another.
HausBrauerei_Harvey
Well-Known Member
Brian,
Your idea sounds like the build I am planning for this summer: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/keezer-mother-sizing-466141/
I haven't seen this kind of concept posted here (I honestly haven't had too much time to look either, there is soo much content on this site - most of it awesome) and my time is limited.
I was planning on an STC to control the main keezer down below kept at cold serving temps, and two seperate STC's for the two seperate ferm chambers. One line will control the fans that pull cold air via duct-work from below, a second a fermwrap for each carboy (like to fit two in each chamber).
Last weekend in the middle of the night I had the idea to raise the floor of the freezer up about 1-2 inches, and seal the duct-work for the cold pulls to that, and seal that floor well, except for a small gap on the opposite side of the duct-work. I think this would create a 'pocket' of really cold air to supply to the cooling fans when they kick on.
I was also thinking about using 4" house ductwork and rigging up the computer fans so they are inside the ductwork.
Thoughts?
Your idea sounds like the build I am planning for this summer: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/keezer-mother-sizing-466141/
I haven't seen this kind of concept posted here (I honestly haven't had too much time to look either, there is soo much content on this site - most of it awesome) and my time is limited.
I was planning on an STC to control the main keezer down below kept at cold serving temps, and two seperate STC's for the two seperate ferm chambers. One line will control the fans that pull cold air via duct-work from below, a second a fermwrap for each carboy (like to fit two in each chamber).
Last weekend in the middle of the night I had the idea to raise the floor of the freezer up about 1-2 inches, and seal the duct-work for the cold pulls to that, and seal that floor well, except for a small gap on the opposite side of the duct-work. I think this would create a 'pocket' of really cold air to supply to the cooling fans when they kick on.
I was also thinking about using 4" house ductwork and rigging up the computer fans so they are inside the ductwork.
Thoughts?
FuzzeWuzze
I Love DIY
As others have said, you should realistically have your fan running 24/7 to keep the air moving around anyways..your talking pennies in electricity to run a 12V fan.
Well after some investigation I figured out how to wire it up to accomplish it. It takes a couple of Allen Bradley relays, one wired to each of the hot's for both cooling and heating, you can find them on Amazon and Ebay with both the base and relay sold in pairs for $25 - $35. I've talked with several refrigeration and heating professionals and they agreed for how I want to heat and cool such a small chamber that circulation of air is only necessary during heating and cooling. I have my lagering/cold crashing chamber (freezer) completed and working now so next is the first fermentation chamber. When I have it all completed I'll post some pictures of it all. So far I really haven't done anything that someone else hasn't already done and posted pictures of.
FuzzeWuzze
I Love DIY
Wait what? You spent $35 on a relay to accomplish what?
Thats probably like 5 years worth of running a 12V fan 24/7 365 days a year.
Your professionals sent you down the wrong path i'm afraid, sure it gets the problem solved but at a much higher cost than hooking a PC fan up to a 5/9/12V power adapter and just leaving it on forever. They dont care as much about temperature gradients as we do.
Thats probably like 5 years worth of running a 12V fan 24/7 365 days a year.
Your professionals sent you down the wrong path i'm afraid, sure it gets the problem solved but at a much higher cost than hooking a PC fan up to a 5/9/12V power adapter and just leaving it on forever. They dont care as much about temperature gradients as we do.
I'm going to hook up one fermentation chamber and run it with the relay for a few days and then constantly and use a pc connected to a probe to record 24/7 temps so I guess we'll find out. Their telling me I'll see less fluctuation only running it during heating/cooling cycling and it will cycle less often according to them.
Beernik
Well-Known Member
Having the fan all the time doesn't work for his application because he wants to make three chambers with three different temperatures in a single freezer.
The fans would move cold or hot air from compartment to compartment to control the temperature.
It's basically like controlling a side-by-side fridge/freezer.
I assume the relays are timers that will kick the fans off and on.
But for $35 you could build another STC-1000.
If you could set the lagering chamber at 35F with the freezer's thermostat, the the two STC-1000s could run the fans/heaters for the two ferm chambers.
The fans would move cold or hot air from compartment to compartment to control the temperature.
It's basically like controlling a side-by-side fridge/freezer.
I assume the relays are timers that will kick the fans off and on.
But for $35 you could build another STC-1000.
If you could set the lagering chamber at 35F with the freezer's thermostat, the the two STC-1000s could run the fans/heaters for the two ferm chambers.
Beernik, I am going to run 3 STC's to control each chamber seprately but as you stated the refrigeration guys think if I leave all three circulation fans running all the time they'll cause too much air movement that will cause too much fluctuation in temprature. They feel that if I only cycle the circulation fan when the stc for each cycles during a heating/cooling cycle I'll see more even tempratures and less variation. When a ferm chamber needs to be heated though the cooling tube going to the freezer will be capped to prevent any warm air movement at all into the freezer. I'm going to figure it out though which way is the best so we'll see.
The relays though aren't on a timer, they will be run off the hot side (that runs to the outlet that powers the freezer/heater) from both the heating/cooling output from the stc so when the stc triggers a heating or cooling cycle the circulation fan will cycle and when it reaches temp all air movement will cease.
The relays though aren't on a timer, they will be run off the hot side (that runs to the outlet that powers the freezer/heater) from both the heating/cooling output from the stc so when the stc triggers a heating or cooling cycle the circulation fan will cycle and when it reaches temp all air movement will cease.
I have my fan on my kezzer wired to the heat side so the fan runs After the cooling cycle. I only have a 1-2 degree fluctuation in my coffin with it on all the time the coffin was getting colder then the base and my faucets would sweat and drip. I made 2 fermentation chambers each holds 2 carboys/4 cornies, one sits on top of the other to save space, each is temp controlled. I use a fridge for cold crashing and long term storage/lagering also temp controlled. +'s of being a refrigeration tech
