8 watt under tank heater

Hooked up an 8 watt under tank heater for a terrarium to my temp controller. Cold nights in CA get the ferm chamber down to 58, just a little colder than I would like sometimes.  I affixed the heater to a small piece of glass leaned up in the back of the refrigerator. Will it work?

Maybe? 8w is a nightlight worth of heat. Not much.

Depends on how cold ambient, temp of wort, volume of wort, temp to chamber, volume of ferm chamber, insulation of ferm chamber, tightness of ferm chamber, humidity, air flow.

I t really depends on how well sealed and insulated your chamber is. I heat mine with a 40w light bulb and my garage gets into double digits below freezing often.

If it doesn’t work as well as you like, try placing it under the fermenter.

I would worry this might overheat the yeast at the bottom, could lead to off flavors.

Good point. Try affixing it to the side of the fermenter if it doesn’t work as well as you like.

UPDATE:

Left it affixed to the piece of glass at the back of the fridge.  Weather drops down to the low 50’s here, so not too bad.  The little heater kept my temps at 64 from 57 with no heat element. It seems it won’t really get my temps much higher, but I would say it works well enough for now.  I will try a heating pad, maybe in addition, which is on it’s way from Amazon. I would think then that the heating pad would definitely work if the little 8 watt tank heater brought me up 8 degrees.

I have a heating pad in my chamber.  It has an automatic shutoff at one hour, so I had to hook up a timer so it runs for 55 minutes and shuts off.  (A Rube Goldberg set up for sure)

The Sunbeam Moist / Dry Heat Heating Pad supposedly does not have an automatic shut off.

I have an ITC-1000 temp controller, Amazon $15, wired to a 40watt light bulb. Does the trick.

That’s what I use. The large ones for 14cf small for the little chest