I originally cross-posted this to r.c.m and r.c.w., in addition to the beer brewing groups, because I know that we all use carboys and other fermenters, and believed that we are all concerned with heat. Judging from the replies, it looks like there have been many responses from r.c.w., but since it is fairly clear that my idea is less likely to work with wine (and possibly not mead), all future posts by me on this subject will be limited to the beer groups, i.e., this will be my last post on this to r.c.m and r.c.w. However, I do want to take this opportunity to thank everyone, and to let you all know that I will be responding further to some posts by Joe Sallustio, gene, Mark R, Hershel Roberson, Scott Linder, Droopy, QD Steve, and Ben -- but only through the beer forums; I don't know which of you are subscribed to them, and if any of you belong only to r.c.m. or r.c.w. but are particularly interested in discussing this further, I'll be happy to include you in direct emails if you don't want to visit the beer groups.
Meanwhile, let me just end here with a few general statements that some of you might find interesting or useful.
First, based on further research, I still think this device might work, and actually work well enough to even permit lagers to be made in an unrefrigerated carboy -- dropping the temp down close to freezing. I will explain why in a longer post on r.c.b., a.b.h-b., and a.h.
Second, "Heat pipes have an effective thermal conductivity many thousands of times that of copper", and they are used in a wide range of applications, from refrigerators and air-conditioners to even lap tops computers.
Third, even water can be used as a refrigerant inside of a heat pipe, although alcohol has a more useful range for my idea.
Here's a link for some of the above:
And now I just have a quick reply for Mike, below.
Mike McGeough
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Understood. Because I don't think stainless steel is a viable option, the only other solution I can think of regarding wine is to possibly coat the heat-pipe with something like very thin plastic -- maybe a food-grade plastic paint -- but I don't know how much of an effect that would have on the efficiency of the heat pipe. Also, it might well be that there is never a need to drop wine fermentation temp down that far, so please excuse me if I was out of line to post in your forums.
If I decide to proceed further and manage to get one built and working well, I'll post a final report in your wine and mead forums just to let everyone know.
Cheers, Bill Velek Join "HomeBrewers" international grid-computing team and help mankind by donating spare computer power for medical research such as cancer; we're The life that your computer can help save ... might be someone you love.
