Fermentation Controller

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calebstringer
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Fermentation Controller

Post by calebstringer »

Hello,

I am in the process of building out my parts list for a complete fermentation setup. The final vision is three, dual zone conicals (two inlets, two outlets per conical), a tank of chilled glycol, and a tank of heated glycol. Each conical would have two 12v ball valves on their inlets.

The entire system would have:
6 ball valves (two per conical)
5 temp probes ( one for each conical, and one for each glycol tank)
chilled glycol tank with a pump and air conditioner
heated glycol tank with a pump and heating element (possibly a 1000w heat stick or something)

My initial thoughts are to hook up the heat to the lower zone of the conical, and the cooling to the upper zone.

My questions on this build are two fold. One, am I overcomplicating hooking up the heat/cooling
Two, will one BCS-462 handle all of this? I understand I will need a 12v driver board, and 4 SSR's.

If it does require two BCS-462's (one for heat, one for cool) can the temp probes be hardwired to both (be shared)?

Thanks for your help

Caleb
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SamIam
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Re: Fermentation Controller

Post by SamIam »

calebstringer wrote: My questions on this build are two fold. One, am I overcomplicating hooking up the heat/cooling
Two, will one BCS-462 handle all of this? I understand I will need a 12v driver board, and 4 SSR's.
Caleb
Wither it's overcomplicated or not is a bit subjective, sometimes it's just fun to do stuff, but to me it seem like it's a bit too much. Why not just have one glycol loop for each fermenter and cool or heat the glycol bath accordingly. I don't see the need for dual zone unless your fermenter is over 1bbl. I'd use one temp probe in each fermenter then just turn on the pump/heat or pump/cool based on your fermentation process. This would eliminate all your ball valves, get you down to two temp probes, one glycol tank per fermenter, you wouldn’t need a 12v board anymore, just four SSR's and yes, it can easily be done with a 462.
calebstringer
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Re: Fermentation Controller

Post by calebstringer »

The 30g fermenters I am looking at, are from brewers hardware.com They come dual zone already. Its not something I am doing.

It would simplify the setup, but it defeats the purpose of what I want. Say I am lagering a bock, or an oktoberfest or something, and have a saison fermenting next to it. I wouldn't be able to maintain temps in both. I guess I didn't say in my initial post, but I am looking at eventually having three 30g conicals. Thats why I am looking at the ball valves, and two glycol tanks/loops.
brahn
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Re: Fermentation Controller

Post by brahn »

Either way it seems like a single BCS-462 would be able to handle it. I don't count more than 18 outputs, so it should be able to handle this setup easily enough.
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SamIam
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Re: Fermentation Controller

Post by SamIam »

I've seen those fermenters, they are really nice. What I was suggesting would still allow you to maintain different temps in each fermenter and would also allow you to heat or cool. However, it would essentially eliminate the dual zone capability, you would have to jump the outlet of one zone to the inlet of the other. I think you would have a bit more flexibility and control with the way you are planning to do it but my suggestion would give you a slightly cheaper alternative.

Good luck and post some pics when you get it built, I would love to see it!
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