Can not get rack hot enough. please help

[tirwin]

Hi,

I am having a few problems with my rack system. the temps inside the tubs only get up to around 29 degrees max. the rack is heated by a 4 meter 15 watt heat cord. I have tried covering the cord with aluminium tape, but this didn't help. just wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to get the tubs hotter?

 

[SamNabz]

Hi tirwin, you simply need a higher wattage heat cord.

 

[tirwin]

Hi, thankyou for your reply. this could be a very dumb question but anyway, Would a higher wattage cord that is longer reach a higher temperature?


I guess it should beause a 15 watt 4 meter cord is 3.75 w/m while a 50watt, 6 meter cord is 8.3w/m. thanks for your help.

 

[Ramsayi]

Is the back of the rack closed? If not cover with thin ply or similar.

 

[Snowman]

Not easy to get enough heat from a 15w cord on a rack. Best to use a longer cord and have more runs.

 

[PythonRob]

It is normally better to use higher wattage Heat Cords, Heat Mats, Lights etc and use a light dimmer switch to stop it reaching the Max output (of course in conjunction with a thermostat) than using lower / under capacity items that have to run at maximum capacity but fail to heat to the correct levels.

 

[wokka]

It is a combination of wattage of heat per tub, vs the ambient temperature. Ball park you should need about 10 watts to raise the temperature about 10 degrees above ambient, so you need a few runs of heat cord to prodcue the required wattage. I am sure there is an actual formula but unfortunately I dont know it!

 

[tirwin]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I will get a 25W 4.5 meter heat cord as this will give me nearly 2 times the power per meter. thanks Ramsayi, The back of the rack is closed in.

 

[andynic07]

It is a combination of wattage of heat per tub, vs the ambient temperature. Ball park you should need about 10 watts to raise the temperature about 10 degrees above ambient, so you need a few runs of heat cord to prodcue the required wattage. I am sure there is an actual formula but unfortunately I dont know it!

I think that there are too many variables to have an easy formula but I think your 10 per 10 may be close enough.

 

[A1SNAKETRADER]

I have a 2.4 metre rack with 6 shelves however the usable space in each shelf is only 2.2 metres so the cord is ok for length
Use a 9 metre cord in 4 runs and could easily get 45 degrees in the warm end of the tub. I have the cord routed in and about 30mm apart and have ceramic tiles over them to act as a heat sink. The whole rack is run of 1 thermostat seeing all tubs are equal in size.if the thermostat should fail they can still get to a cool end ok

 

[pharskie]

I've actually been thinkin a lot about this. I have come to the conclusion that because I live in a relatively cool climate, I'm going to run two 50watt heat cords in my hatchling rack setup. One will be attached to the thermostat for all year round heating and the second will be used during the winter months as we usually see 3-4 months of sub 5 degree nights. This way when it's cold the cord attached to the thermostat is supplementing the one that's on mostly. I haven't tried this theory out yet but looks good in just that, theory. The same idea works with a cycling rack, but just using a day/night thermostat attached to both cords so night time temp drops arnt as bad as the ambient temps around here.