Hello everyone-

I am new and have been reading the boards since I found you. I have casually smoked cigars for a long time but have never been serious about it or smoked frequently. I was more into it in high school but drifted away from smoking.

Anyway, I am interested in starting a small collection of sticks and smoking one or two a week.

Onto my question. I live in Wisconsin, where it is cold. I have searched for a long time but found almost no information about heated humidors. Some people had questions about storing their stogies at around 63º and the general consensus was that that is OK. My cigars, however, would be exposed to around 55º for a significant (~6-7mo) amount of the year. This is no good. In some other threads the relative humidity numbers were given were at 60º 100% relative humidity was needed to maintain 65 Rh. Obviously, 55º would be an issue.

My solution (proposed) is to build a heated coolidor. My plan is to get a 50qt or larger cooler (probably on CL) and install shelving for an upright or door style coolidor.

I would install a PID controller in the door that would power a heat pad to maintain the coolidor at exactly 70º, or another temp. if you suggest so. The heat pad will be on the back wall and I would install a very small intermittent operation fan to ensure even temps and humidity.

I plan to mount a humidifier from heartfelt industries and a digital hygrometer on the inside of the door.

I have some spanish cedar boxes on hand that I plan to cut slots in and use as trays initially.

Here is my bill of materials:

1 PID with relay output : $44.50 : Auber Instruments : SYL-2342 : link
1 RTD sensor : $15.65 : Auber Instruments : PT100S : link
1 Fermwrap heater : $39.99 : MoreBeer : FE650 : link
1 Heartfelt Humidity Bead Case - 70% Large : $49.98 : Heart Felt Industries : link
1 Rectangular Adjustable Hygrometer : $21.95 : Heart Felt Industries : link
1 Cooler : $25.00 : Craigslist
4 shelves : $1.00 : random
SUB-TOTAL $201.07

So what do you think? Is this a good idea? Necessary? Overkill? Do you hate me?

Cheers,

Justin