Hello, I have built a rack, it has 4 rows, 5 small shoeboxes per row for a total of 20. I would like some advice on how to heat it, I would like each row to have it's own strip of 3" heattape underneath each box for the proper belly heat. I am unsure of how to wire it so that I need only one big apple proportional thermostat to control the heat. I don't want to snake the heattape through each row because that's going to add quite a few feet to length I need to buy which is going to cost me. If this is the best way to do it, let me know.
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Wiring Heattape help needed!
ram
Nov 27, 2003 05:43 PM
Replies (2)
Colchicine
Nov 27, 2003 08:01 PM
I think that you are going to have to bite the bullet on this one. I have built a similar size rack using three edge flexwatt heat tape. I am building to larger ones right now that will use the four inch tape. I "snaked" up the side of each shelf and onto the shelf above it. I think this will be the easiest, and also the safest way to achieve using only one thermostat. I can assure you that it will not add significantly to the cost of the tape, after all you are only talking about a foot or two which is another five bucks. Besides, if you have to worry about spending a little extra money on the heat tape, how in the world are you going to be able to afford medical bills for 20 snakes?
So yes, I honestly think it is the best way to do it.
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)
meretseger
Nov 28, 2003 06:47 AM
I was GOING to do the snaking thing, but we ended up just plugging a power strip into our thermostat, because it's actually serving two racks right now. You have to make sure that your total wattage of heat tape isn't more than the thermostat can handle. I was told my heat tape was 4 watts a foot.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?
