Temp Control For 3 Gallons.

I'm a noob home brewer, having only completed a Mr. Beer kit, but im looking into a 3 gallon carboy and soda keg, possibly a 2.5 gal secondary. Anyhow I was wondering if any of you guys brew small 3 Gallon batches and what your temperature control methods are?

Aside buying a small gutted fridge, I am contemplating the idea of building a wood frame....which will contain a 2-layer (blue foam) box to hold the carboy. Then, I would heat/cool the box with a peltier module on each side, one hot one cold, connected to a digital thermostat, that would cut them on/off to maintain perfect fermentation temp.

I was just curious as to what methods are used. I have seen 60 watt light bulbs etc.. I want to create the ideal environment.

 

like you have a pretty good idea on what you want to accomplish. May want to give Northern Brewer a look. They have some pretty quality stuff good prices and ship fast.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/johnson-controls-a419-digital-temp-controller.html

 

much obliged

 

I use a heating pad for my mead, but I keep it around 80 degrees for 3 months.

 

I've thought about many different cheap ways to control the temp. I guess the main thing is that sometimes my apt. is too hot and other times too cold to be optimal. These peltier plates have gotten a lot cheaper recently. For example:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10080

These may not work on 6-gal batches but maybe on small ones. This way you could have hot/cold control all year hopefully.

 

Make a "cooler" out of foam (buy the cheap coolers from the grocery store and cut the sides out to get panel material).
Put the carboy inside and the foam will help to isolate from the temperature variances of the house.

Peltiers work, but they require a bit of a support structure... heat sinks on both sides and fans to circulate the air on both sides.

 

Roger that. Im thinking about using a 12V computer power supply or transformer. I found a cheap digital thermostat on ebay with a relay output that should work well. I think its able to be calibrated too which i could check with another thermometer.