Temperature Control in a Blichmann Conical - Phase 3

mixbrewery · Post by **mixbrewery** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:35 am

Frothy - Have a look at TLC Electrics.
Enclosures
Item - GW BX974 240 x 190 x 90mm IP56 Moulded Box looks to be a suitable size.

Excellect work SF, i've got one of those boxes somewhere.
Perfect housing for my ATC800.

Frothy · Post by **Frothy** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 1:06 am

Muchos Gracias

Ianb · Post by **Ianb** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:15 pm

Any more news, SF?

I'm trying to cobble together a temp control system at the moment with heating and cooling, which I'll be able to scale up in the future if required. I'm just waiting for some motorised 3 port ball valves for heatng / cooling selection.

The intention is to be able to brew any beer at any time of year.

How have you got on?

steve_flack · Post by **steve_flack** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 9:55 am

Recent brewing trials with 25L batches have shown that uninsulated the chilling side can drop the temperature around 10C below ambient and the heating 7C above. Given that it's generally easier to warm up ambient than cool it then that's not so bad. You could brew ales when the ambient is between 10C-30C with this system. For lagers the range would be 3C-20C -ish. So with the exception of the extremes of summer and winter you could brew most of the time in my garage space. In a utility room you could brew all year pretty much.

I would expect that on a larger volume (35L) you'd get similar if not better cooling (more probe immersed for a volume of liquid) but obviously poorer heating.

I have made a little insulating jacket out of that radiator backing foam stuff but that only bought me a couple of extra degrees either way - a cone insulator made of neoprene or a camping mat would probably work better.

steve_flack · Post by **steve_flack** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 10:20 am

In more baby news, it now seems that baby Flack has started to realise that the dark bit of the day/night thing is the bit meant for sleeping....

Much rejoicing this morning!

Post by **Aleman** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:22 pm

DaaB wrote:The ATC800 unit controls the arbitrary temperature in the fermenter, the internal thermostat in the chiller controls the ice bank. The ATC 800 shuts the whole lot down once it's happy with the temperature in the fermenter and the chiller rests, that'll work just as well wont it?

You can do it that way . . . but I've seen a number of Python chillers that have had the compressor fail because of the frequent switching. Seperating teh two is one way of ensuring maximum life from your chiller.

Of course I also know of many people who don't do this and have no problems with their chiller failing. . . . Having been on the receiving end of two failed compressors in the last 3 years I have taken the same route as Steve. Although I've put a switch in the chiller to switch between normal python mode and fermentation mode, as my chiller also doubles as a python on occasion.

Post by **Aleman** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 3:10 pm

The issue comes with the switching of the compressor in the chiller. I've known three chillers that have given up the ghost when run as Daab suggests(*), however as Steve says its a simple mod to just switch the pump.

I'm going to take mine one step more to make it switchable, between standard cooler mode and have an IEC connector to connect to the ATC, when I want to use it for FV Cooling

(*) I've also known a lot more that haven't

but I'm not prepared to take the risk

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Temperature Control in a Blichmann Conical - Phase 3