Thermoelectric Mashtun Idea

[Joel]

Has anyone considered using Peltier devices to directly heat their mashtun. Or rather keep the mash at a constant temp?

I got the idea from here:

http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_30311/article.html

and you can get the gear from here:

http://www.oatleyelectronics.com/peltier.html

Basically, my idea was to construct an esky (or similar) with a copper heat plate as the base and use pelts in heating mode with a suitable temp sensor to control the temp in order to keep the mash at a constant temp (complete with digital temp readout of course!).

Lots of detail to work out, but it could be an interesting project.

 

[Rex]

Personally I reckon a HERMS system would be a lot simpler to build and more effective.

With the PELTS you will probably get hot spots where the grain contacts the plates. Might work better if you had a metal mash tun and had them attached to the outside rather immersing them in an esky.

 

[Joel]

I think you've miss what I was trying to explain...

You can't immerse peltier devices. The copper base is the entire bottom of the vessel. The devices are mounted on the underside of the base. With 2 or 3 pelts spaced evenly across, say, a 3 to 5mm thick base then the heat will be quite evenly spread. Remember that peltier devices are typically only 35 to 75 Watts (the cheap ones are anyway.)

With the base plate temp regulated at about 66C, then there won't be any really 'hot' spots. It certainly wouldn't be any worse than an ordinary esky in terms of thermal layers and what-not, probably would be a lot better. At least that's the idea.

 

[Asher]

A degree or two drop over an hour is achievable with not much more than a blanket round a bucket.... As long as this process is repeatable it will have little affect on the quality of your beer. Peltier devices will not allow stepping of the mash so I'd be directing my time/money on processes that have a greater effect on the finished product... like fermentation control & more kegs/fridge space for longer lagering

Havin said that - I can't see why it wouldn't work :unsure:

Asher for now