Winter coming heating suggestions

[mrsupraboy]

Hey guys I've got a fermenting fridge and cause its heading towards winter in gona need some heating options for inside the fridge. Any ideas

 

[Yob]

Heatpad? Light bulb and terracotta pot? Reptile heat belt?

 

[stakka82]

Winter is coming...

 

[mrsupraboy]

I've got the heat belt but I've got more then 2 fermenter In there at a time. I need a way to heat up the fridge space and not just the fermenter. I thought of a light but was worried it might melts the fermenters

 

[Yob]

Many people hang the heat belt inside the fridge over the shelf or whatever

 

[manticle]

You don't have to wrap the heat belt around the fermenter. Just let it sit at the bottom or dangle in the airspace.

Otherwise a small wood fire.

 

[mrsupraboy]

Would the heat belt heat up that much tho or be a massive waste of power

 

[manticle]

It's just some heat until the right temp is reached. The efficiency of insulation of the fridge and seals are probably more pertinent. I haven't noticed my power bill go up since I started using it.

It's just to maintain a temp - the thermostat (stc100 or whatever you use) will switch it on and off as required. Seems to work OK here but I admit I haven't made a pie chart or plotted it on a graph.

 

[Nibbo]

If there's room, you could use the heat belt on a smaller container full of water. This would heat up the water and then heat up the fridge space.
I run an immersion heater in a 10ltr plastic jerry full of sanitised water at the bottom of the fridge in my set up and works well. I have an all fridge so I have plenty of space in mine.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Stop inviting this guy over for brew days.

 

[pk.sax]

Simple, put the belt around one fermenter and that will hear up the whole fridge space. The other fermenter takes a free ride.

 

[MaltyHops]

If there's room, you could use the heat belt on a smaller container full of water. This would heat up the water and then heat up the fridge space.
I run an immersion heater in a 10ltr plastic jerry full of sanitised water at the bottom of the fridge in my set up and works well. I have an all fridge so I have plenty of space in mine.

Or maybe wrap heat belt around a pot or saucepan to help dissipate heat. Or get ceramic infrared bulb used for warming pets/chickens/...

Don't dangle heat belt in free air in fridge - see Melted Brew Belt

 

[Spiesy]

Whilst this topic has been done to death, I love my infrared ceramic heat lamp.

No light to degrade beer. No contact to introduce hot/cold spots. Just gentle, even heat for the whole fridge.

 

[Kiwifirst]

Whilst this topic has been done to death, I love my infrared ceramic heat lamp.

Busy searching for a local supplier of infrared ceramic heat lamps.
I currently have an old kitchen cupboard with a light docket, but Melbourne weather can be a bit fickle. Thought about using the fish tank warmer rod in a bowl of water, but a heat lamp sounds much better.

Thanks.

 

[mr_wibble]

Busy searching for a local supplier of infrared ceramic heat lamps.
I currently have an old kitchen cupboard with a light docket, but Melbourne weather can be a bit fickle. Thought about using the fish tank warmer rod in a bowl of water, but a heat lamp sounds much better.

People use them for brooding chickens, and warming reptiles (i'm told)
So maybe checkout pet stores (or just ebay).

 

[woodwormm]

People use them for brooding chickens, and warming reptiles (i'm told)
So maybe checkout pet stores (or just ebay).

pet shop for the win

from experience though, in the bearded dragon's 'house', a ceramic heat lamp is a silent attacker... as you can't see they're on, you don't notice it until the flesh on your forearm starts melting.. if you put one in your brew fridge, put it somewhere out of arms' reach!

I just use a heat pad, hung inside the door of the fridge.. I find in Adelaide it doesn't need much heating, even in the depth of winter in my shed. a brew left to its own devices will hold around 13 degrees on its own, a little heating and ale temps are reached very efficiently.

 

[stattonb]

i use heat cord for my hatchling racks (Bearded Dragons) and have used on on my first brew work great,checkout a local pet shop, dont go to a place like pet barn or you will pay thru the nose

 

[Kiwifirst]

I used my fish tank warmer rod in a jug of water, worked great for the first 4 or 5 days. Then I checked in there and it was like the Amazon jungle, the humidity was already starting mild to form on the wooden walls. So now have a little fan heater on a temp controller till I find myself a pet shop.

 

[Truman42]

I used my fish tank warmer rod in a jug of water, worked great for the first 4 or 5 days. Then I checked in there and it was like the Amazon jungle, the humidity was already starting mild to form on the wooden walls. So now have a little fan heater on a temp controller till I find myself a pet shop.

Cover the jug so just the chord can poke through to keep the moisture inside the jug. Or use a 10 litre jerry can and block the outlet with a rag.

Also try putting some starsan or bleach / PBW in the water.

 

[yankinoz]

I put my fermenter in an old fridge, without temperature control, and have little problem maintaining a desired temperature. It takes experience, but I'll give my current batch, 20L of 1.048 wort with Scottish Ale yeast, as an example. I aim to maintain 16 d. Remember, a 20L or so batch has a large temperature-buffering capacity, but also generates a lot of heat during the active phase.

The fridge has a top freezer, which I prepared by putting several layers on newspapers across the bottom, to reduce heat loss out the top of the main compartment.

I pitched at 16. Overnight temp in the unheated room dropped to 11, but I put in a 4 L jug of water at 16 (as an extra buffer) and a 3L bottle at 22 d for warmth. I did get up once in the night to top up the warm jug. In the morning the wort temp was still 16.

When the fermentation became active, I switched from warming to cooling. During the day I put on top of the fermenter one of the freezer thingies sold for eskys, the large size, changing it every 3- 4 hours. 16, 16, 16. Alternatively and if not home, I would use two in the morning and one in the early evening; that might cause a small temp swing, but nothing deadly. I also need more ice if I aim to keep the wort temperature at 18 or higher; faster fermentation means more heat is produced.

At night I just left the fridge door open a crack. In the morning the room temp was unexpectly warm at 14, and the wort temp was almost 17. No disaster there, but I opened the crack wider until the room warmed up.

I repeated the steps. Once the fast fermentation stops, I warm at night in winter using a water jug and leave the beer alone in the day.

For lagers I use a cheap timer on the power line leading to the fridge. With experience and weather forecasts I can set the fridge to run at the right intervals at night and use ice containers in the day.

Every situation will be different. If you went the same way, you might want if possible to plan the fast fermentation to start on a weekend, and you may wantn to get up once in the night. While getting to know my setup I did have an English bitter run up to 22, where I wanted no higher than 20. Now that I know the setup it's really little trouble to maintain a temp. Really. I bought a timer, but only use it when I make lagers.