Homemade Sausage Making

I'm redoing an old 48" stainless propane smoker, took out the burner and replaced with an electric element on digital controller. I've heavily insulated the top and the walls, is there a benefit to insulating the floor. Since heat is rising I wasn't sure. I apologize if this is a silly question.

thanks

I guess the main question has to be if you can keep it above freezing in cold weather? Generally if we can't hit 150°F internal temp we have to finish it in the oven in the kitchen. I smoked some fish the other day and I was working to stay above freezing.

GrillinGlen-I would insulate the floor while you are in the process of rebuilding the unit. As Ross said, you want to hold all of the heat you can and even though heat rises there is a considerable loss through a floor. Heat transfer occurs from hot to cold at a constant rate (don't worry about the formula unless you are really curious)-the heat transfer through the floor is related to the temperature difference between the temperature inside the smoker and the outside temperature (conductive transmission) insulation slows the conduction and you retain more heat in the smoker. Even a double wall with an airspace between the walls will cut this loss almost in half.

Pat

Thanks much, makes good sense, I'll do it. I have enough heat to get it as hot as I want, the concern is that the lower part of the chamber would get too hot because the element is cranking hard to keep up with the heat loss. everything but the floor is heavily insulated, I'll deal with that next.

GG