Of Interest To Homebrewers Only

It's been freakin' hot hereabouts since, like March, and I've been ineffectively trying to manage fermentation temps in the basement while simultaneously not running the A/C all the damn time. Also, I just want it to be consistently cool in the basement, and not see my breath upstairs. Finally, it occurred to my thick self that maybe I should control the thing I am concerned about directly, and not worry about the rest unless I need to. So I put a thermostat in the granny cell, and let that run the A/C.

Wuht?

This is a granny cell:

That's the whole room. It's in the corner of our basement, and was built so Mrs. C's mum would have someplace to sleep when she stayed with us for a month at a time. (She likes purple.) Since that time, the little Cicerones have grown up and gone on their ways, and we have a spare bedroom above ground for mothers-in-law and other travelers to use.

So, anyways, it has a door, and one of the three HVAC diffusers in the basement within its bounds. So, if I put a "granny thermostat" in there and put my fermenters in there, I could control their ambient temp, and thus fermentation temp. Thermostats are really simple gizmos, and you can just parallel them as long as you only turn one on at a time. Right now, the only diffuser register that is open is the one in the "cell," because temps outside are fairly livable. The rest of the house will track along, depending on whether the registers are open. When the temps inevitably approach 100F again, I will close windows and open registers again. The important thing is that while Mrs. C. and I can easily tolerate some extreme temperature swings, the yeast doesn't have to. After all, brewers make wort, but yeast makes beer! Current granny cell conditions:

Room for plenty more... especially once the bed goes!