Safer heat dissapation

[Lockie]

Hi everyone,

I'm making a couple of heat panels - the panel itself is stainless steel, and will have cable tie mounts attached to it with a heat cord running through them. The cable tie mounts will help air circulate around the cable as it holds it off the stainless steel by about 3mm. There will be enough distance between each run of cord, so they wont be mounted too close together.

I understand that heat cords can overheat - and I need your opinion. I'd like your advice on which of the below designs would give a 'safer' dissipation of heat.... put plainly which one do you think would burn/melt first?

oh - the heat panel will be mounted on the back wall of the enclosure, near the floor so the heat rises upwards. It wont be roof mounted, as it doesn't project enough towards the bottom of the enclosure. By putting it down the bottom it heats the lower half of the enclosure to around 25.8 - i've done a few test runs.

I think Heat Panel A might be the safer design - the reason being that there are long horizontal sections of cable, and the heat rises uniformly upwards. I think (!!?!??!?) the reason that Heat Panel B would be less desirable is because of the vertical cable runs - i think that the top of each of those runs would get super hot, as the length of cable beneath it dissipates it's heat upward and therefore could overheat the top section....

what do you think?

thanks for your help,

Lockie.

 

[wiz-fiz]

I think that model A would be better, coz the way that the steel is going.
it looks longer and therfore will need more energy to make it melt.
But that's just my opinion

 

[wokka]

Its been said before but maybe encasing the cord in ceramic tiles would be safer as its non conductive, disperses heat better and will have greater thermal mass.

 

[jack]

i have two cages with false bottoms, made from mdf, that have the heat cord similar to diagram b, only the zigs and zags begin close together and end up far apart, thus creating a heat gradient along the floor ... but i believe my other cages that use either heat panels mounted on the ceiling or ceramic heaters to be more effective for my reptiles...
my rodent cages sit on metal shelves which have heat cord underneath, as in your diagram a, evenly spaced, 3 lengths per shelf, coated in expander foam as insulation... this seems to work, but the steel gets to about 37 degrees where the cord is resting against it, and is very much colder between the cord lengths...

 

[bigi]

try using glass panels rather than steel or stainless.
glass will not conduct electricity

 

[Lockie]

thanks for your help, you've been a great help - I hadn't considered the conductivity issue (can't believe it didn't occur to me). Good idea about the tiles - I reckon I can cut some to fit perfectly in between the stainless steel and the heat cord, which will also insulate it!

thanks again,
Lockie