Brand New Smoker (Me and the actual smoker)

Welcome from the upstate. It's good to have you on this great site. There a lot of really fine folks here who are always eager to share their ideas, recipes and tips. All you have to do is ask away and keep reading. Take a look at the beef sub-section. There are a ton of good brisket ideas there.

What part of the state are you in?

Welcome aboard, enjoy your new addiction.

 Not sure about the temp increase you mention. Naturally the ambient temp will rise some at idle (off), but nowhere near cooking temp. Might be a concern when attempting cold smoking.

 There is a thread here somewhere that mentions getting a false (high reading) due to the sun shining thru the door window and refracting on the temp sensor. Solution was simple, Block the sunlight with a peice of cardboard leaned against the door.

 Now this may not be the temp increase you mention. The temp will overshoot when heating. Then it will cool significantly before it heats again. Most common ovens be it gas or electric do this. (face it, the MES is just a small purpose built oven). This temp swing will tighten up a bit as the unit warms up and after a few cycles +/- 15 degrees is about normal. Not to worry, you meat represents a relatively large thermal mass and doesn't respond as fast as the unit cycles makeing it more responsive to the average temp between swings.

 Hope this helps

Rick

Welcome to the Forum and dig right in.

Sorry about the temp spikes. I am a stick burner and can't give you any help on your electric rig.