I thought I'd start a thread on how everyone keeps their FV at a specific temp range...
At the moment I just keep it in a central part of the house where it can range from 18-23 degrees, but unless I turn the central heating on at night during the winter it will drop considerably and I'm not fond of doing so because it's a waste of energy.
As space is a factor I was thinking a brew belt connected to a HTC-1000 might be a nifty setup.
Anyone want to share their setup?
I had been doing same with FV at floating room temp.
I recently set up below counter fridge on STC1000 controller using desk lamp with 60W bulb as heat source.
Fermented last 2 brews this way - Kolsch & steam beer. Waiting for them to bottle condition
I use a heatbelt and an stc1000 for control. The room i ferment in never goes beyond 20 degrees.
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I will buy a fridge at some stage and hook that up to the stc1000 also. When i get the fridge i will also get a tube heater to go in it.
I'm currently using a heat belt with a stc wrapped under a duvet. The house is never warm so it works at keeping the temperatures at 20 or above. Simple yet effective!
One of the simplest setups I have seen recently is...
Kingspan chamber sealed with Duct tape.
Brewbelt and STC.
Freeze a 2l bottle of water or 2 and sit it in the chamber.
An STC1000 and heat belt under a duvet in the shed has always worked for me!
In our last house we'd a small upstairs room which was always cold. Used to have a wee heater that used to flick on and off keeping the room around 18oC.
Have nothing like that in our current house and ended up brewing an unintentionally Belgian IPA last winter due to poor temp control.
I've a stc, brewbelt and fridge now but I used to use a swamp cooler (big bucket full of water) in the closet under the stairs. It was the most tempreture stable place in the house, stayed cool in good weather and the swamp cooler kept the temps even more stable. Plus with a swamp cooler if you are paying attention and the temps start to spike you can add ice to keep it cool.
Have the FV with a brewbelt in a box with and the box is wrapped up in duvet. I was worried about duvet being in direct contact with the brewbelt but from the other replies that doesn't seem to be a worry. I use a simple 24 hour timer plug adaptor to switch off and on the brewbelt. I should get around to getting a STC
Thanks for all the replies! Seems a brewbelt and STC-1000 is a popular method. I've never even considered insulation (duvet) before, which is an eye opener. As a side note... Has anyone with their FV in a fridge ever had issues with CO2 buildup?
Co2 buildup was mentioned in the past, but I don't think it's an issue.
Fridges have a drip hole to the compressor, this allows dense gas to escape too.
If possible always get the "Larder" version fridge.
This does not have an ice box and so is much bigger inside.
Also the door moulding of the fridge often sticks into the body of the fridge taking say 3"out of the available space. Just remove the moulding - you don't need it.