Fermentation / Condition Chamber

[lumpy5oh]

Here is my fermentation / conditioning chamber build. The overall dimensions are 5'w x 3'h x 3'd. The cfermentation side is roughly 4'w and the bottle conditioning side is 1'w. I am using an old dehumidifier as a cooler insise the ferm chamber. I got that idea from the March edition of BYO magazine. I also have a small space heater in it; both being controlled by an ebay temp controler. I can easily fit 4 5gal batches in the bottom and 2 small batches on the shelf. I am estimating I can fit 125+ bottles of various sives in the conditioning chamber.
Without further ado; here are the pictures!

 

[lumpy5oh]

The dehumidifier and heater.

 

[lumpy5oh]

Inside

Finished project.
I used plexi glass to cover the top.

Me and my beautiful beer fridge

 

[reynolds5520]

Unless there is something I am missing in the pictures here, I think you need to mount the dehumidifier in the wall so that the hot side coils are on the exterior and the cold side on the interior.

With the entire unit inside, it will do a good job of dehumidifying the air - but it won't cool the space.

 

[lumpy5oh]

That was something I forget to mention. When I first ran the dehumidifier the fan pulled the air thru the cool coils into the warm coils and the temp inside the chamber did rise. Because of the way it is facing I reversed the direction of the fan and the warm coils stay fairly cool. The temperature in my garage is only 10°C now. I have been thinking though as to how I could modify the dehumidifier and leave the warm coils on the outside; or whether I need to find an AC unit for it.

 

[reynolds5520]

You will need to do something. Any refrigeration unit, whether it is a refrigerator, freezer, window A/C, dehumidifier, whatever, moves heat from one place to another place. For this to work you need to move heat from the interior of the box to the exterior. The cold side coils need to be inside, and the hot side coils need to be outside. Both coils inside can only add heat to the box from the power consumed by the compressor.

 

[lumpy5oh]

You will need to do something. Any refrigeration unit, whether it is a refrigerator, freezer, window A/C, dehumidifier, whatever, moves heat from one place to another place. For this to work you need to move heat from the interior of the box to the exterior. The cold side coils need to be inside, and the hot side coils need to be outside. Both coils inside can only add heat to the box from the power consumed by the compressor.

Understood and corrected.

 

[reynolds5520]

That will work!

You may need to add a fan to move the cold air around, but it may work just fine without it.

 

[lumpy5oh]

That will work!

You may need to add a fan to move the cold air around, but it may work just fine without it.

I have a fan to go in there to run constantly. Thanks for the input.