One controller can control any number of cages up to the wattage limit of the controller. The problem is this: say you have cage #1 and cage #2 and both are plugged into one controller. Say the probe is in Cage #1. That is what the controller sees as the temperature. If you turn off the heater (or it burns out) in cage #1, the controller sensor sees a low temp and the controller goes ON full. Cage #2 then gets full power to the heater while the controller sees the lower temp in cage #1. An overheating accident just waiting to happen.



A dimmer plus a cheap thermostat is a functional yet low-cost solution for each cage. The output of the thermostat goes thru the dimmer and to the heater. This way, you have overtemp protection via the thermostat and some fine-tuning with the dimmer. Costs less than a proportional unit for each cage, yet you are protected. Also, turning off the heat in one cage will not affect the other.



As mentioned, GCS does make a 4-channel controller (proportional) which will give tighter control. Or, buy 2 proportional controllers. Up to you. I would at the least go with dimmers and the cheaper T-stats. Super easy to wire. Just wire the dimmer in-line with the cord from the heater. Plug the altered cord into the T-stat output.

[ Hide Replies ]

• Radient heat panels and thermostats.(come on people I'm almost there) - Bodhisdad, Wed Feb 18 06:25:16 2004
• RE: Radient heat panels and thermostats.(come on people I'm almost there) - sstorkel, Wed Feb 18 17:37:33 2004
• RE: Controller info - markg, Wed Feb 18 18:18:01 2004
• RE: Controller info (a little more) - Bodhisdad, Wed Feb 18 20:42:11 2004
• RE: Controller info (a little more) - markg, Thu Feb 19 14:08:09 2004