rewerb said:
I used a plastic storage container, an old towel and a cap full of bleach (and some DampRid nearby, Oklahoma is a bit humid). My meager home stays around 75F and the wrapped up fermentor sitting right next to the AC outlet is at 55F... or so the $1.47 thermometer says.
Question: Whats the bleach used for??
Its funny this came up. I tested this last weekend. Without beer in my carboy. I filled it with water. Put it in a kegger tub put water in the tube 1/3 of the way up. Set a fan to blow down on the wet towel draped carboy.
I stuck a 12' long needle thermometer down into the water. I had a nearby room thermometer. I borrowed a laser thermometer from work for wet towel temps
Starting temp 70'F Ambient Air & Water in Carboy.
One hour later 70 Air temp, water 69'F, towels 63'F
4 hrs later 70 Air, water 65'F, towels 60'F
6 hrs later 70 Air, water 63'F, towels 59'F
8 hrs later 70 Air, water 64'F, towels 59'F
I would be carefull about believeing the exterior temps will equalize with the center water temps.
This is pretty cool though. I need to run the test longer to verify it will equalize.