I am looking to build a Fermentation chamber that will take care of both heating and cooling. Any ideas?
Best,
RH
I use a household thermostat for controlling a mini fridge. Since the thermostat has heating on it, it could easily be used to control a heating pad or heat lamp/ ceramic bulb. I removed the thermistor from the electrical board and attached it to a six foot lead so I can insulate it right against the fermenter for better control and don’t have to have the thermostat inside the fridge. It works beautifully, though the temperature on the thermostat is off 5-6 degrees. I check temperature against my brewing thermometer to set the thermostat where I want.
Do a google image search for some fermentation chamber ideas. Lots of them out there…
Care to share how you connect the household thermostat to the fridge? Is the stock fridge thermostat low voltage as well?
Thx
VK
[quote=“GriGri614”]I am looking to build a Fermentation chamber that will take care of both heating and cooling. Any ideas?
Best,
RH[/quote]
I use a chest freezer with a johnson controller for cooling, and a ceramic heater for heating. Works like a champ! :cheers:
Care to share how you connect the household thermostat to the fridge? Is the stock fridge thermostat low voltage as well?
Thx
VK[/quote]
The thermostat isn’t connected to the fridge. The fridge thermostat is set to the coldest setting so it will always think it needs to be turned on (at fermentation temps). The household thermostat controls a relay which completes a circuit to a 110v plugin. Its basically the same setup as a Johnson controls deal where you plug the fridge into the temp controller. Its just not as sleek looking :roll:
If you want better directions on actually setting this up, let me know. I had all the parts laying around with the exception of the solid state relay (friend gave me one) so the setup was free for me. I also use a homemade thermostat for my kegerator courtesy of a friend of mine.
Here is a bit of information about a fermentation chamber I recently made. There s also information on the Digital temp control, and some other stuff.
http://www.upcrafts.com/brewing/index.cfmCheers,
Jerry
All ideas have most definitely help the cause! I will do my best to post the process.
