Fermentation Chamber Heat

Greetings All - I recently converted my very old kegerator into a fermentation Chamber and I?m using a Inkbird controller to control the temperature.  (I know, why did I convert the kegerator instead of using it for kegs?  Because NOW I can tell my wife I need a NEW kegerator.  Shhhhh  ). Anyhow, so far I?ve only been able to control the cooling because I have no heat source installed.

Which brings me to the question.  What can I use for a heat source?  I thought about a heat lamp, but safety is a concern as I don?t want to go too big.  I?m sure there is a safe way of doing this, I?m just experiencing a mind block and can?t think os anything.

Ideas?

I have an old fermwrap from the pre-chamber days that works great, but I assume you don't have one of those.

Before it dawned on me to use that, I put a fish tank heater in a gallon of water in the chamber.  That did the trick pretty well when the gallon was touching the fermenter, but the warm water evaporates in the chamber so much that I wouldn't recommend it.  This is mitigated pretty effectively by putting some tin foil over the gallon, but still... there is probably a better way.

That's all the experience I have to share, I'm with you... there's probably a ridiculously simple method that is eluding us.

You can use a 35+ watt fermentation wrap and attach directly to your fermenters. Another option is to wire a standard light socket and use a lower wattage lamp.

Mark

Greetings jtoots and merfizle - both are great suggestions.  I like the heater wrap concept.  However, I'm wondering if the wrap would act as an insulator from the cooling in the event of overshooting the temperature setting.  Hence the light idea; I like that idea also.  Now I'm also wondering, however, if I need to install some sort of air moving device -- like a computer fan -- to stratify the air when the heat if ON.

A 60 watt incandescent light bulb works great. Even smaller if the temps where you have it stay above 40 or so. I had an old fridge in my shed and used a 60 watt, if I recall right,The temps often get into single digits here and occasionally slightly below zero. 

I'd say don't worry about the insulation factor.

I'm with you on the fan(s), I think a lot of people do that, and I'd like to improve my game in that direction soon too.  Although stratification is probably a (minor) issue, the main reason I want a fan is (again) moisture... thinks seem to get a little swampy at the peak of fermentation without it.

A good solution is a ceramic reptile aquarium heater. Nothing to burn out or break like with a light bulb.

I use both a low volt carboy wrap and a regular old heating pad.  They both seem to work just fine.  I can't chart the temps but whenever I look at the inkbird, I am within 1F of my target temperature with both.

I have 3 inkbird controllers and ferment in a old dorm fridge and my closet when doing 2 at a time.  In the closet, I use a fan for cooling and whichever heating option is not being used.  I tried a ceramic space heater but it wasted too much heat heating up the whole closet.

Cheers!

I use a 40w tube heater.

I use a small personal size ceramic heater.