Wine Fridge Incubator DIY

[Ric F]

Hi all.

I'm in the middle of a wine fridge conversion to incubator. It's a 86x55x50cm glass door wine fridge with traditional refrigeration coils. It's got 16 gauge 240vac wiring running into the interior which connected to the original thermostat and I'm qualified for the related work so no issues there. All electronics will be inside the fridge so there won't be waste heat.

Control will be via an Arduino board, power to heating will be via a zero crossing SSR to 240vac; cooling (although intended more as an emergency function) will be similar via another SSR and switching the existing compressor and utilising existing circuitry. Fans will be dual 120mm pwm fans powered by the same supply as the Arduino (12vdc 3A supply), with some power filter circuitry. All good so far.

The guess work comes at trying to figure out appropriate sizing of heating. How many watts of resistive heating do people find is appropriate to heat those fridges to a maximum of about 15-20C above ambient, assuming I put it in my garage in a Brisbane springtime? I know I can just wing it but am hoping that there's some insight to be gained here.

Any input is appreciated. I've got most of the components together at this time but the practical build is yet to begin.

Regards,
Ric

 

[Herpetology]

Why not just line it with a 75w heat cord running around the back and sides internally?

Heat cord
Computer fan
Thermostat+thermometer

 

[Ric F]

Why not just line it with a 75w heat cord running around the back and sides internally?

Heat cord
Computer fan
Thermostat+thermometer

Essentially it's that. I just tend to overdo things.

 

[Herpetology]

Essentially it's that. I just tend to overdo things.

Most incubators would be running at a constant temp anywhere from 28c to 32c some species might be lower or higher but a decent thermostat and heat cord will have that covered no worries. Assuming the fridge is well sealed and insulated.

 

[Ric F]

Thanks Herpetology; admittedly most of this is an exercise in intentionally overdoing things. My daughter is second year electrical engineering and I'm attempting to use this as a project to show her practical examples of a lot of the theories she's learning, and using mostly components that I have sitting around gathering dust. Heat cord was the one thing I didn't already have, hence making sure that I size it with enough capacity.

I tend to do an overdone project every once in a while to keep the brain from rusting.

Initially this will be for Antaresia; potentially being used for varanus or pogona down the road, so I may have to play with stratification of heat levels or just build another incubator if the temperatures are too different.

 

[dragonlover1]

I'm with Herpetology , heat cable around the edges, 10cm PC fan powered by an old phone charger and a thermo plus an extra thermometer. This is all my incubator has and has worked fine for over 10 years for several species of dragon,lace monitors and pythons

 

[Herpetology]

10cm PC fan powered by an old phone charger

I use one of these, only need to strip the power fan cables a cm or so. plugs into any dc charger

 

[dragonlover1]

I use one of these, only need to strip the power fan cables a cm or so. plugs into any dc charger

that's why I use old phone chargers no need to spend $, already have the adaptor built in just splice the wires and done

 

[Ric F]

Thanks all for the input. I've tracked down a 60 watt heat cord and will see how it goes when it gets here. The local shops were a bit slim on anything over 25 watts hence my trying to figure out if I really needed something bigger.

Hopefully in a few months I can post an update if my snakes manage some eggs this season. They have certainly been giving it their best so far.