Muffin fans make a lot of heat

[Alsace]

I just set up a fermentation chamber in a chest freezer. I only have a single stage temp controller, and I was running a fermwrap with it. The ambient in my basement was 59 and I had the controller set at 61. What I didn't account for was the heat generated by my muffin fan. I left the set up overnight and came back to find the fermenter at 80 degrees in there. Fermentation was almost over, so that wasn't accounting for much if any of that heat. This fan was generating enough heat to raise the temp in there by over 20 degrees, which really surprised me. Just made the think about the fan (an identical one) that I run 24/7 in my keezer. If it is generating that much heat within the keezer, that must be making my freezer run a lot more. Thoughts?

 

[day_trippr]

Are you using an AC fan, or a DC fan? I just compared the power consumption of the 120mm 12vdc fan I use to "stir" my keezer with a random 120mm 120vac fan listed on ebay: the dc fan uses .85 watts while the ac fan uses 18 watts.

Otherwise, with a two stage controller you'd likely not have even noticed this

Cheers!

 

[winenewb172]

I read the thread title as "muffin fans take a lot of heat" you can imagine my disappointment when this wasn't about making fun of people who like muffins

 

[Alsace]

I'm using an ac axial fan. I think it is 15 watts or something. I didn't realize there was such a big difference in power consumption. But then again, it says it moves 81 CFM. I chose it because they had an easy set up at the shop where I found it where I could wire it to a plug using plastic crimp connectors. Do the little dc ones move enough air to do the job?

 

[day_trippr]

If all you're doing is stirring the air in a freezer or fridge, it doesn't take a lot of power. The 120mm 12vdc fan I'm using is rated for 40cfm which is plenty for my 10cf keezer, but you can find dc fans rated to move more air at the cost of more power consumption. I see 80cfm dc fans that draw 3.5-4 watts, so you can pick your poison...

Cheers!