Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got my herpstat and it is awesome but i have a ? did you rewire your herpstat to take a better plug, or since you are only using the 1 heating element did you leave the original plug intact.The design that i came up with for my incubator will require a few more lower wattage heating elements but i didnt want it to look tacky with a bunch of extension cords anything you can recommend would be great

I'm glad you like the Herpstat, they do work very well.

Since I was just using a single heat coil I didn't have to do anything different with the plug. I just wired up a male connector to the heating coil and plugged it in directly to the Herpstat.

If you are running multiple heat elements what you can do is pick up a European-Style Terminal Strip from Radio Shack

http://www.radioshack.com/search.asp?find=European-Style+Terminal&site=search&SRC=1

and wire all your heat elements to that then a single male connector out to the thermostat. I use this method on my rack systems to cut down on cords that need to be plugged in. Make sure that you wire your heat elements to the terminal in parallel not in series, and they don't add up to more than 500W. Here is a picture of one of mine on a rack system.

George

George:

Thanks for the picture. I am a total ignoramus on electricity (and many other subjects) so I find it really interesting.

Questions:

1- you have 5 heating elements working of that system, yes?

2- the very last wire on bottom of left side is not doing anything or necessary, correct?

Thanks again George!

Ben