What I did was build a wooden "warm box", and glued some styrofoam on the
outside of it for insulation. I placed a mini oil filled radiator in it set
to a low setting.

It's in my basement, where it's normally about 50-60 this time of year, I
have a cheap walmart $8 electronic thermostat with a sensor inside my wooden
box, and from that I can see the temperature is always in the 67-73 range.

I built my box in such a way that the top and front is removable, to provide
easy access to my fermentors, and for syphoning etc.

If you have some old furniture - maybe an old kitchen cabinet, or an old
armoire - you could also easily adapt that for the same purpose, (I didnt
unfortunately, and had to build from scrap) - just make sure it's strong
enough to support the weight.

I find that my radiator is off for most of the time, as it's such a small
area to heat. (I built it 28" high, and 36" wide, 19" deep) - big enough
for 2 fermentors and the mini-radiator.

If you dont have a mini-radiator, or dont want to buy one, you could also
build something using a 100w lightbulb and a thermostat, I did this at
first, and it worked, but I was just uncomfortable with the possibility of
light damaging my beer (though Im told incandesant light wont harm it) and
it seemed to be powered on more than off when it was cold overnight,
indicating (to me) that it was struggling to keek the cabinet warm enough.

Craig



"Andy" <andy@aekins.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1137756015.416147.304870@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
> Hi guys
>
> I'm very new to brewing and will be starting my first batch soon....I
> want to lay my hands on a heater as the fermentation will be done in my
> shed and it is pretty cold out there at the moment! What I don't want
> to do however is waste money on heating the garden as well as the
> beer....does anyone have any recommendations for insulating the
> fermentation bucket against heat loss ???
> Thanks
>
> Andy
>[/color]