Temp. Control with a heat lamp?

General Homebrew Discussion
1

I know the people in cold weather climates have thought of this already but was wondering if the light it’s self will cause problems? Am I still stuck putting a towel over the carboy to keep out the potential light pollution even though it’s not a fluorescent bulb?

Thanks

2

My cellar stays about 60F in the winter so I have to warm things up a little.  I built a bench that the carboys sit on and just use one of those ‘clamp on’ work lights directly beneath the fermenter.  A little tin foil around the hood of the light allows to direct the warmth toward a particular area and things work fine.

3

http://www.woodenshoemusic.com/WSBW/Fermentation.html

4

I didn’t know there was such a thing. Is there any chance there is a part # for that “Bulb” I’m having a tough time finding it in the extremely large Granger catalog.

Thanks again

5

Here’s another option around the same price.

6

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/TEMPCO-Edison-ScrewIn-Infrared-Heater-Bulbs-4TDD2?Pid=search

That’s the 100W version… The key word to search for is “infrared lamp”

7

Another option is to buy a 50 watt heating pad without the auto-shut off feature.  I’ve been using this in a box freezer in my garage this winter with my digital temp controller and it can easily maintain temperatures.  I believe it was around $16 from drugstore.com

8

40 watt bulb in a chest freezer has worked well for me, both with my plastic buckets of years past and my ss 15 gallon corney I use today.

9

I just went to the pet store and bought one of those red heat lamp bulbs they use in lizard aquariums. I use it with a temp controller to keeps things were I want them.