My Airing Cupboard Temperature

[Notlaw]

Right then, I've been doing a bit of a temperature study of my airing cupboard. There is a space under the boiler that I want to liberate for fermenting, but I'm a bit concerned about the temperature in there.

Over the last six days it is hovering (depending obviously whether the heating is on or off) around the 17-19 degrees sort of area, but early in the morning it has dropped to 14 degrees one day. We are a bit spartan with the heating as we don't like the house too warm, but I'm worried that it's not warm enough in the cupboard.

I am thinking about trying something like insulating the floor with the corrugated cardboard, cut to size to fit around the pipes etc, as I think maybe the heat is being lost through the gaps in the floor boards. I could also wrap a duvet around the bucket or something as well, to keep it cosy.

Do you think I'll have problems? Anything anyone else recommends that I could try? I like fixes that done with stuff that people have lying around anyway. I'll get a heat pad or a band at some stage, but I don;t want to go out and buy one just yet, if I can do something for nowt in the time being.

 

[Gaspode]

I have made a couple of jackets for my FV's using off cuts of foam carpet underlay.
We had a carpet fitted recently and I liberated all the decent sized off-cuts and cut them to size so that they fit snuggly.
It was 11mm thick and seems to be helping to keep a constant temp in the cupboard under the stairs which has a few gaps in the floor where the electric and gas comes in to the consumer units and meters. I keep them in place with a couple of bungee cords top and bottom.
Like you, we don't have the heating on very high and only in the mornings and evenings but the lagging certainly helps without the need for additional external heating.

 

[mike77]

You could pick a yeast that will operate well in that temperature range. Nottingham for instance will cover that whole range. That said probably best to try and minimise the swings in temp if possible.

 

[wheazy_joe]

Remember you have about 23 litres of liquid, it takes a heck of a long time for temperature fluctuations in the room to transfer through to that much liquid.

 

[MyQul]

What wheazy says. If you wrap the FV in some sort of insulation (towels blackets what-have-you) the temp flucctuations in the early morning shouldn't have any effect

 

[Notlaw]

How about small batches though? I want to do a few 5l batches to play about with a few things. I've actually just remembered, I've got one of those little 500w oil filled radiators in the garage somewhere. I could stick that in there during the night on a low heat, just to maintain the warmth a bit.

 

[MyQul]

Small batches are a different matter. Much more suseptable to temp fluctuations

 

[Notlaw]

Small batches are a different matter. Much more suseptable to temp fluctuations

Duvet and little radiator help?

 

[MyQul]

Should do. If you are planning on doing 5L batches a lot a cool box would be perfect to put em in. That basically what my brewbag is/does.

 

[Notlaw]

Should do. If you are planning on doing 5L batches a lot a cool box would be perfect to put em in. That basically what my brewbag is/does.

I think I might have a couple of big cool bags in the shed and I've definitely got a foil lined freezer bag thing that I got when I renewed my Costco card.

 

[MyQul]

If you've got some cool bags the FV can fit in, that should be perfect. Just stick some towels in there too they can fit to help with insulation.

My ambient temp in my flat is 18C-20C, I have a pseudo lager/porter on the go steadily at 15C (some ice bottles in the brewbag) at the mo The brewbag is just a huge cool bag

 

[LarryF]

Being tight fisted my FV's winter coat is made of all the bubble wrap I get sent when ordering on line. I have an outer and inner layer of wrap with quiet small bubble and inside I have the big bubble stuff to create as much of an air blanket as possible. I'ts all been very well celotaped together and does a cracking job for me. Likewise in my quad folded sleeping bag tea cosey for my AG pot I line the layers with that with the big bubble bubblewrap and on Tuesday this week I lost 0.8c over a 90m mash, Back of the Shed!!!!

 

[clarkeuk]

If you have power in there I have seen some thermostatically controlled tube heaters on eBay for under twenty quid

 

[Sandimas]

Large garden trug from BandQ (6 quid), fill it with water, 50W fish tank heater off eBay (6 quid), set it to 18/19C, drop your FV in there and forget about it. :thumb:

 

[MyQul]

Large garden trug from BandQ (6 quid), fill it with water, 50W fish tank heater off eBay (6 quid), set it to 18/19C, drop your FV in there and forget about it. :thumb:

I'll see your BandQ six quid garden trug and raise you (err lower you :-?) a B&Q storage tub for 4 quid!!

 

[Sandimas]

Nice one :) Did notice the fish tank heaters dropped to a quid on eBay just after Xmas....