120VAC 40watt heater

a heating pad. try a brewing, hardware, or garden shop.

Some ideas off the top of my head - Use a 25W incandescent lamp if 40W with the tinfoil shield is too much. Put a 1-amp diode in series with the lamp to reduce power by half. You could also coat the bulb with matt black spray paint instead of tinfoil.. Use a wirewound resistor(s) in place of the lamp.

Some pet stores will have ceramic heating elements that are designed to screw into a normal lamp socket, for keeping pets warm. Example:

Omega sells a number of heaters that might do what you want. This is one example

For either of the above heaters, if you buy a standard 120 V "dimmer switch" with a knob - designed to control incandescent lamps - it will also work to adjust the output of the heater. Mount it in an electrical box with a standard wall outlet and a cord.

A coffee mug warmer seems to only be about 17 or 18 watts:

Standard disclaimers apply; I don't get money or other consideration from any companies mentioned.

Matt Roberds

Connect two or more lightbulbs in series so they run at half (or third etc) their rated voltage and glow red rather than 'white'. How many? Don't know, filament resistance is lower at lower temperatures, so try it and measure the current to find the wattage.

Lightbulbs operated at a lower than rated voltage will last more or less for ever, and the 40W is spread out among two or more.

And what's more, I've learned a new word.

Cheers

They call them "cartridge" style. Cooler surface than "immersion" style. Because of the greater surface area. I'm sure that other solutions are even better, but also more costly. Putting this type

You can also (you actually have to) use duty cycle (PWM) to make a higher wattage unit operate at a lower temperature ( a simple light dimmer switch will work on a DC heater element).

one example with a 30W version

Put a dimmer switch in front of the lamp. Turn the damned light down.

Get a nice big spotlight bulb and use the dimmer to regulate the surface temp of the bulb. Immerse. Voila.

It will reduce the wattage, but not by half. The flimaent has a non linear resistance that goes up as as it heats up. That means it will be more than half.

Can't you use a cheap electric space heater to warm the vessel from outside? We've done that with honey extractors.

I've used a 'heater tape'* and Variac for that type of thing. Heater tape might be expensive... but maybe something at the hardware store to stop outdoor pipes from freezing.

George H.

• a resitive element in a woven high temperature fabric, with 1/2 of an AC plug on each end... you clip the plug together after wrapping the tape around something.

Hi,

I think I will go with a lightbulb painted with high temperature exhaust pipe paint and bake it to keep the paint fumes down. That is similar to the light socket ceramic elements that Matt mentioned which would be perfect. Also I am using a cheap digital thermostat from ebay:

Thanks guys for the tips!

cheers, Jamie

Or a 150W, 240V bulb. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Kombucha? :) It is a pretty nice drink, and inexpensive to make, just need the scoby to get started, if anyone wants one mailed out let me know.

cheers, Jamie

Yeah, that's cheap and should work with a triac dimmer.

It's a self-balancing critter mixture, sort of a liquid sourdough.

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message news:vbKdnQLgW7ab44vMnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com...

Oops, that's correct. But it will still reduce the heat output substantially, perhaps enough for the OP's purpose.

Yep that's probably a good idea, after one coat of black paint the lightbulbs are still giving off light, and I don't trust the paint to not give off fumes.

cheers, Jamie

Hi,

One thing I was wondering about, is how the yeast get their nutrients, normally when making beer, you will need to add nutrients with the yeast, like vitamins and minerals, (or buy something like "turbo yeast" with the nutrients already added). But with Kombucha, its just black tea and refined white sugar, so I'm a bit curious if adding nutrients would give different results.

cheers, Jamie

If you can use an immersion heater, a fish tank heater might be ideal. Glass tube so it's easily cleaned and it has a thermostat setting. They come in various wattages.

Lookup heat tape.

?-)