>>What is the most cost-effective way of heating several small plastic bins? I plan to eventually build a nice rack system, but right now, I'm just looking for something simple, and cheap.

>>

>>Is heat tape the best way to go? And, what all do you have to buy to hook up the heat tape? I think most of the places I see it sell the tape only, without a thermostat and whatever else you need to run it. I'm clueless on this larger scale stuff. My experience has been limited to display tanks. Someone help!



This is what I did, and was the cheapest I've been able to manage so far -



Got heat cable. 14' with a 6' cold lead. I keep three tubs on a plastic shelf, and so I just used electrical tape to tape the heat cable to the shelf in a logical fashion. Got a rheostat, plugged the heat cable into rheostat, then used my temp gun to monitor temps, along with a little indoor/outdoor temp gauge I left in there to monitor the highest/lowest temps when I wasn't around.



Finished product:





Costs:

Heat cable: $11

Electrical tape: dug it up in the garage

Rheostat: $19

Temp gun: already had, but $20.



If I wanted to use the shelf below for tubs too, I can plug another cable into my rheostat.



It took me some tinkering, and I still check the high/low temps every week, but it's worked great for me so far. I can rearrange what tubs I keep on there, and if I used smaller tubs I could probably keep more on just that shelf.

Hope that helps!



~jenny
-----
"The python has, and I fib no fibs,

318 pairs of ribs.

In stating this I place reliance

On a seance with one who died for science

This figure is sworn to and attested,

He counted them while being digested."

~Ogden Nash



jenny.thegreenes.org



"If you're happy and you know it,

Bomb Iraq!

If you cannot find Osama,

Bomb Iraq!

If the terrorists are frisky,

Pakistan is looking shifty,

North Korea is too risky,

Bomb Iraq!

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