Temp control

[timmy]

Hey all,

I don't have a fridge I can dedicate to fermenting and want to do a lager soon. I was thinking of using a fishtank heater set on 10-12 degrees in the fermenter and putting the whole lot in the fridge. Would that work?

Cheers,

Tim

[BribieG]

Fridge is cooling, fishtank heater is heating. Might work.
I'll have a word with my mate round the corner who does something similar with his kit n kilo brews and he doesn't seem to run up huge electricity bills. (edit: he does it with a heat belt not a fishtank heater but same principle). When he first mentioned it a couple of years ago I reckoned he was off with the pixies but hell he's still doing it.

[billybushcook]

Timmy,
try using the energy from your beer fridge for cooling a seperate insulated box or dead chest freezer.

I use a tempmate to circulate (pump) cold water from my beer fridge into my brew box which is an old chest freezer.

Mick.

[jords]

Billy

I like that solution, it has a certain elegance to it.

What sort of pump do you use and how do you power it. It is low voltage right?

[chadjaja]

I have a saison fermenting at the moment upstairs at 28-30 degrees I love Saison summer temp control

Other ales still go in the bunnings cooler with ice blocks and sit at 18 degrees Too easy.

[billybushcook]

The pump is a 240V submersible pond/fountain pump.
Check out your local irrrigation & pumping supplies shop, mine was about $20.

The beauty of this system is that I can have two fermenters in the box at ferment temps & another in the fridge cold conditioning. Three fermenters full & all being cooled by the same energy source...Oh & cold bottles as well.

I have been considering changing to an "in line" pump so it can be out side the fridge & instead of using cold water from the fridge, it could pump even colder, water/glycol mix from the freezer.

Cheers, mick

[jords]

Billy

You have me inspired.

My thoughts are leading towards a bar/fridge made from demountable panels with a frost free compressor on the side blowing to cool some kegs and the coolant reservoir, then running at least one seperate fermentation area cooled using your system, with the pump on a tempmate.

Do you think a few meters of coiled copper pipe with act as a sufficient radiator?

[billybushcook]

Billy
Do you think a few meters of coiled copper pipe with act as a sufficient radiator?

Probably not.

I use an old Air Con heat exchanger with a cowling & 12V computer fan connected to the same source as the pump.

Any old car radiator, heater core or air con exchanger/condensor will do, it doesn't matter if they have a leak because they are not required to run under pressure in this system they can be repaired/sealed with silicon or Aryldite etc.
try your local Auto mechanic or air con mob for a throw away!

Cheers, Mick.

[earle]

Breathed a sigh of releif on Sunday morning when my fermenting fridge seemed to be working ok. It was making a funny noise last week and as it only had a few post christmas/new year bottles of beer in it, I turned it off and shifted the bottles to the kitchen fridge. When I turned it on the next day (plugged direct into power rather than through fridgemate) it didn't seem to be doing much but I didn't have any time to wait to see if it kicked in. Was getting a bit down about the impact having no temp control was going to have on my brewing. Turned it on Sunday morning and after a while it kicked into action, must have a compressor delay built in. Hopefully it'll see me good for a few more years yet.

[drsmurto]

Look at Freecycle in your local area for free fridges. I've scored 3 so far that way.

Not knocking your system Mick but do you know what the energy consumption of your setup is (1 fridge running plus the other thingamy) compared to 2 fridges?

[billybushcook]

No i havn't tried to monitor it Doc.
might be worth a look?
I can't remember off the top of my head what the pump draws pump but I'm pretty sure it is in mA.

If you think about it though, it is comparable to the energy used to keep the box cool with rotating frozen bottles.
it is still cooling the same volume of air from X degrees down to Y degrees within a given time thus will require the same energy to do the work (w). (here we go again with the physics)

It is just doing it automatically & therefore is probably more efficient because it is only cooling just as much as is needed ?
As well as the fan & heat exchanger would be more efficient at cooling air than simply a lump of ice covered in plastic(Enthalpy comes in here again)


Cheers, Mick.