WildaYeast
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- 11/2/06
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Hi All,
I have been contemplating my next major equipment purchase and have been strongly encouraged to steer my $$ towards kegging gear. (Have my basic AG setup happening.) The major problem is it requires me to address the refrigeration issue. SWMBO is quite clear that I won't be allowed to plug anything else in (we had one electricity bill that approached $700).
If I am to appease her, I need to replace the spare fridge in the garage with something that will serve for both kegs and extra milk, etc. This kind of rules out a chest freezer, which has been eulogised at length for its virtues as a keggerator, but isn't really as good as an upright for spare fridge capacity. Ideally, I would also like to be able to ditch my fermentation fridge (an old, not working, upright freezer that I keep cool with frozen milk jugs), which I also use for proofing my sourdough bread products.
The sum of my thoughts have condensed into the idea below. I welcome any wisdom from those who have been down this or similar roads before me.
I figure the 'ideal' (best compromise) solution is a double glass door commercial display fridge. I just missed out on one on eBay last night that went for $500, due to some last minute arguing with SWMBO. Good side of it is she now feels sorry as she convinced me it was going to pass in without any bids. So, I have a bit of sympathy going on the fridge upgrade...
A big plus on these I reckon is that there is no compressor hump on the bottom (fan at the top), so kegs can go right in all nice and level without any fiddling. They are also pretty deep on the inside, and with an nice stainless floor generally, so no plastic to worry about and should easily accommodate two kegs deep, possibly three, or at least one staggered in the middle layer.
I figure that the CO2 can go right in the fridge on the bottom with the kegs, which means no worry about feeding the lines through the walls anywhere. As the volume runs close to 1,000 L, I think I will have plenty of room to accommodate a half-size CO2 bottle, which is about the same size as a corny keg. The extra thermal mass in the fridge should actually help to keep things efficient.
I am also thinking that I can mount the taps right inside the fridge, probably in front of or right above the kegs. Just need to make a bit of a plate to mount the taps to and suspend that above or below a shelf. Again, this means all the plumbing stays inside. In terms of loss of cold air when serving a beer, I figure I could put one of those plastic strip cold-air curtains in the fridge on the side where the kegs are so that you wouldn't loose much when pouring.
I figure that about 1/4 of the fridge (bottom right for arguments sake) will be filled up with 4 corny kegs, a CO2 bottle, taps and lines, etc. I'm figuring on another 1/4 for fermentation (bread and beer), let's say the bottom left. My thinking here is to segregate part of the fridge by building a box out of cold room panel material or something similar with insulating properties. All I would really need is a top, which can attach to a shelf, and a wall that goes vertically up the middle of the fridge between the two doors. The other walls of the box would simply be the back and side of the fridge (no cooling in there on the commercial fridges I think, unlike domestic it comes from the fan at the top) and the glass door at the front.
For cooling this fermentation area, I figure a vent at the bottom of the vertical wall (near the kegs) and an exhaust fan (pc fan) on the top wall will do the trick. Fan kicks in from a controller with a temp probe, exhausting the box, which will suck cold air in from the vent near the kegs (coldest air at bottom of fridge). Would probably be more efficient to put this area higher (cool air sinks), but as the fan is in the top of these units, I figure it is better to create "dead space" in the bottom.
I'm not sure whether I'll need a heat source for the fermentation area. If I do, I figure one of those ceramic reptile heaters would work well. Alternatively, could do the aquarium heater, either in the fermenter or in a water bath, or or brew belt or brew pad. I figure if I had two fermenters going in there, fermentation heat would probably be enough alone to keep temperature warm enough with typical Gold Coast ambient temperatures. As most of the commercial fridges have a display light at the top (fluoro usually, I think), plus the cooling fan unit, I figure I should actually be able to get a power source for heating from there, again, without having to worry about making holes in the cabinet.
This leaves me half the fridge or so for milk, etc., which should be more than enough to keep SWMBO happy. (In fact, if anything it is a bit more than enough, generating some concern about electricity...). Expansion potential and flexibility should be good. Easy enough to add a few more kegs on the bottom and make the fermentation area narrower. Also easy to make the fermentation area larger by moving the 'top' shelf up and making the vertical wall higher. Will probably accommodate two carboys on the bottom anyhow with four kegs and CO2 on the bottom, but plently of flexibility in any event.
Space-wise, the double door unit won't be much bigger than the current garage fridge and my fermentation fridge combined, so that's all good (at least until I have to worry about moving it).
Glass doors aren't very efficient, but far fewer commercial double door units out there used with solid doors. They are almost all for beverage display, so naturally the glass. While there is some inefficiency, I have to admit I like the look and I could then stare at my fermenter bubbling away without opening the door, which is very energy efficient...
The advice I had from one repair place is that one of these is likely to consume about twice as much energy as a normal domestic fridge. Given that the volume is about 3 times, that would actually make them more energy efficient, assuming he is at all correct about his ballpark estimate. Have done a bit of web trolling, but couldn't find much about energy consumption on commercial units. There is some sort of standard for the newer ones (MEPS), but couldn't really figure out how to translate any of that into something that could be compared to domestic units. I'm hoping that between our old garage fridge probably being very inefficient at present and the reduced cooling volume I will generate by segregating the fermentation area, that I will end up with less than double my current energy consumption (or, hopefully, no increase at all!).
Other than that, I did get warned that they are loud compared to a domestic fridge, but it'll be in the garage so I'm not too worried about that.
The one thing I do loose is the little bit of extra freezer capacity I currently have in the garage fridge. However, half of that is taken up by my frozen milk jugs in rotation for the fermentation fridge. Won't need that any more, so no worries there. Another 1/4 is my chilled beer glasses, which can live in the refer. That just leaves a few pies an the occasional extra ice cream that will have to get squeezed into the main house fridge. A definite downside, but livable.
Sorry for those with the patience to get this far for the Pistol Patch length post ( Hi Pat
), but I wanted to get all of my thinking out there, for fair criticism and or for the benefit of anyone else now or latter who might be kicking around similar issues.
Cheers, Brian
I have been contemplating my next major equipment purchase and have been strongly encouraged to steer my $$ towards kegging gear. (Have my basic AG setup happening.) The major problem is it requires me to address the refrigeration issue. SWMBO is quite clear that I won't be allowed to plug anything else in (we had one electricity bill that approached $700).
If I am to appease her, I need to replace the spare fridge in the garage with something that will serve for both kegs and extra milk, etc. This kind of rules out a chest freezer, which has been eulogised at length for its virtues as a keggerator, but isn't really as good as an upright for spare fridge capacity. Ideally, I would also like to be able to ditch my fermentation fridge (an old, not working, upright freezer that I keep cool with frozen milk jugs), which I also use for proofing my sourdough bread products.
The sum of my thoughts have condensed into the idea below. I welcome any wisdom from those who have been down this or similar roads before me.
I figure the 'ideal' (best compromise) solution is a double glass door commercial display fridge. I just missed out on one on eBay last night that went for $500, due to some last minute arguing with SWMBO. Good side of it is she now feels sorry as she convinced me it was going to pass in without any bids. So, I have a bit of sympathy going on the fridge upgrade...
A big plus on these I reckon is that there is no compressor hump on the bottom (fan at the top), so kegs can go right in all nice and level without any fiddling. They are also pretty deep on the inside, and with an nice stainless floor generally, so no plastic to worry about and should easily accommodate two kegs deep, possibly three, or at least one staggered in the middle layer.
I figure that the CO2 can go right in the fridge on the bottom with the kegs, which means no worry about feeding the lines through the walls anywhere. As the volume runs close to 1,000 L, I think I will have plenty of room to accommodate a half-size CO2 bottle, which is about the same size as a corny keg. The extra thermal mass in the fridge should actually help to keep things efficient.
I am also thinking that I can mount the taps right inside the fridge, probably in front of or right above the kegs. Just need to make a bit of a plate to mount the taps to and suspend that above or below a shelf. Again, this means all the plumbing stays inside. In terms of loss of cold air when serving a beer, I figure I could put one of those plastic strip cold-air curtains in the fridge on the side where the kegs are so that you wouldn't loose much when pouring.
I figure that about 1/4 of the fridge (bottom right for arguments sake) will be filled up with 4 corny kegs, a CO2 bottle, taps and lines, etc. I'm figuring on another 1/4 for fermentation (bread and beer), let's say the bottom left. My thinking here is to segregate part of the fridge by building a box out of cold room panel material or something similar with insulating properties. All I would really need is a top, which can attach to a shelf, and a wall that goes vertically up the middle of the fridge between the two doors. The other walls of the box would simply be the back and side of the fridge (no cooling in there on the commercial fridges I think, unlike domestic it comes from the fan at the top) and the glass door at the front.
For cooling this fermentation area, I figure a vent at the bottom of the vertical wall (near the kegs) and an exhaust fan (pc fan) on the top wall will do the trick. Fan kicks in from a controller with a temp probe, exhausting the box, which will suck cold air in from the vent near the kegs (coldest air at bottom of fridge). Would probably be more efficient to put this area higher (cool air sinks), but as the fan is in the top of these units, I figure it is better to create "dead space" in the bottom.
I'm not sure whether I'll need a heat source for the fermentation area. If I do, I figure one of those ceramic reptile heaters would work well. Alternatively, could do the aquarium heater, either in the fermenter or in a water bath, or or brew belt or brew pad. I figure if I had two fermenters going in there, fermentation heat would probably be enough alone to keep temperature warm enough with typical Gold Coast ambient temperatures. As most of the commercial fridges have a display light at the top (fluoro usually, I think), plus the cooling fan unit, I figure I should actually be able to get a power source for heating from there, again, without having to worry about making holes in the cabinet.
This leaves me half the fridge or so for milk, etc., which should be more than enough to keep SWMBO happy. (In fact, if anything it is a bit more than enough, generating some concern about electricity...). Expansion potential and flexibility should be good. Easy enough to add a few more kegs on the bottom and make the fermentation area narrower. Also easy to make the fermentation area larger by moving the 'top' shelf up and making the vertical wall higher. Will probably accommodate two carboys on the bottom anyhow with four kegs and CO2 on the bottom, but plently of flexibility in any event.
Space-wise, the double door unit won't be much bigger than the current garage fridge and my fermentation fridge combined, so that's all good (at least until I have to worry about moving it).
Glass doors aren't very efficient, but far fewer commercial double door units out there used with solid doors. They are almost all for beverage display, so naturally the glass. While there is some inefficiency, I have to admit I like the look and I could then stare at my fermenter bubbling away without opening the door, which is very energy efficient...
The advice I had from one repair place is that one of these is likely to consume about twice as much energy as a normal domestic fridge. Given that the volume is about 3 times, that would actually make them more energy efficient, assuming he is at all correct about his ballpark estimate. Have done a bit of web trolling, but couldn't find much about energy consumption on commercial units. There is some sort of standard for the newer ones (MEPS), but couldn't really figure out how to translate any of that into something that could be compared to domestic units. I'm hoping that between our old garage fridge probably being very inefficient at present and the reduced cooling volume I will generate by segregating the fermentation area, that I will end up with less than double my current energy consumption (or, hopefully, no increase at all!).
Other than that, I did get warned that they are loud compared to a domestic fridge, but it'll be in the garage so I'm not too worried about that.
The one thing I do loose is the little bit of extra freezer capacity I currently have in the garage fridge. However, half of that is taken up by my frozen milk jugs in rotation for the fermentation fridge. Won't need that any more, so no worries there. Another 1/4 is my chilled beer glasses, which can live in the refer. That just leaves a few pies an the occasional extra ice cream that will have to get squeezed into the main house fridge. A definite downside, but livable.
Sorry for those with the patience to get this far for the Pistol Patch length post ( Hi Pat
), but I wanted to get all of my thinking out there, for fair criticism and or for the benefit of anyone else now or latter who might be kicking around similar issues.Cheers, Brian
