Hi Jono.
Obviously you have thought about ambient temps etc, & I guess you'll have them in a min temp controlled room which means less heating required to achieve temps & gradients.
Anyway, I'm in the process of building 3 banks of 3 enclosures, 1200 x 600 x 600. I have the problem of very low ambient temps of a night during winter, so I have a mixture of 160w thermofilm heat panels & the new habistat panels. The first bank is finished & running fine using a habistat dimmer to run all three thermofilm units. The probe is placed in the 'master' cabinet & the other 2 have been wired through an IMIT thermo which is used as a safety cut-out & is set just above my max temps. My neighbour is a leccy & wires them for me in about 3 minutes each if I have everything ready.
It's expensive, but I don't have a live-in g/f to nag me about $$! The thermofilm units are $100 each, plus thermostats add another $160, making it $460 each bank. The good side is that I have heaps of power in reserve, looks great, lasts indefinitely, the fitting is an absolute breeze & there are no light cages to make or buy. (hate them light cages)
If I were in coastal QLD, (or any other warm place, or when I get my new house finished) I would do the same except for replacing the heat panels with home made units using a frame of folded colorbond steel or extruded aluminium, with a heat cord zip-tied onto a wire frame. Cover it with shade cloth, mount it on the ceiling & it's done. Sounds like a lot of mucking about but it's pretty simple really, & it will save about $60 per cabinet.
I also use ceramics in ES flanged fittings in my older cabinets, which is cheaper but more labour intensive to wire up & you still have to make those light cages. Did I mention I hate making those damn light cages?
Good luck with it,
Col J.
Obviously you have thought about ambient temps etc, & I guess you'll have them in a min temp controlled room which means less heating required to achieve temps & gradients.
Anyway, I'm in the process of building 3 banks of 3 enclosures, 1200 x 600 x 600. I have the problem of very low ambient temps of a night during winter, so I have a mixture of 160w thermofilm heat panels & the new habistat panels. The first bank is finished & running fine using a habistat dimmer to run all three thermofilm units. The probe is placed in the 'master' cabinet & the other 2 have been wired through an IMIT thermo which is used as a safety cut-out & is set just above my max temps. My neighbour is a leccy & wires them for me in about 3 minutes each if I have everything ready.
It's expensive, but I don't have a live-in g/f to nag me about $$! The thermofilm units are $100 each, plus thermostats add another $160, making it $460 each bank. The good side is that I have heaps of power in reserve, looks great, lasts indefinitely, the fitting is an absolute breeze & there are no light cages to make or buy. (hate them light cages)
If I were in coastal QLD, (or any other warm place, or when I get my new house finished) I would do the same except for replacing the heat panels with home made units using a frame of folded colorbond steel or extruded aluminium, with a heat cord zip-tied onto a wire frame. Cover it with shade cloth, mount it on the ceiling & it's done. Sounds like a lot of mucking about but it's pretty simple really, & it will save about $60 per cabinet.
I also use ceramics in ES flanged fittings in my older cabinets, which is cheaper but more labour intensive to wire up & you still have to make those light cages. Did I mention I hate making those damn light cages?
Good luck with it,
Col J.
