Building A Rack

[Bexie]

Hello

my OH is building a big rack. to hold 32ltr tubs, the whole length of the rack will be 6ft high by 12ft long and 2ft depth

it will be split up in 3 sections all of which will be 6' high, 4' long, 2' deep. it will have 8 levels al together and will hold 72 tubs total.

what we need to find is, how would be the best way to control the 24 heat mats it will take to heat the rack. obviously i dont want to buy a mat stat for each one. i was wondering wether it is possible to fuse some of them together. or wether the only way to do it would be to use heat cable? in which case i need to find out how it works lol

bexie

[sharpstrain]

You dont need 1 stat per mat - you can work to the capacity of the stat - so if you have 60 watt mats and a 600 watt capacity stat you can use 1 stat per 10 mats. They all need to be the same wattage mats and in the same size tubs.

So you would prob be better to use pulse stats or dimmers because they have a higher capacity that mat stats which only have 100 watt

Hope that helps

[bret1789]

hi i build a rack last week for my burm hatchling and i only used one stat to run 17 heat mats and they work great here is a pic of my rack.

[biglad52002]

the lucky reptile thermo conrol stats can handle 1200 watts and are really good

[Bexie]

thanks for that.

i was going to use pulse stats, but the thing im confused about is how do i put 14 mats in 1 thermostat? basically how do i plug them all into it? lol

[mask-of-sanity]

either use junction boxes to wire the mats into ( prob need a few ) max number of mats to one stat i had was 8 so i plugged all the mats into an 8 point extension lead then that was plugged into the stat ...

[Bexie]

Originally Posted by mask-of-sanity

either use junction boxes to wire the mats into ( prob need a few ) max number of mats to one stat i had was 8 so i plugged all the mats into an 8 point extension lead then that was plugged into the stat ...

hmm not a job for my oh then he will just have to build the rack. is it a simple job for somebody who knows what theyre doing?

[Meko]

plugging 8 plugs into an 8 way extension block??

yep, fairly easy. Just plug one in, then another, then another

[bbav]

Just use something like this Buy Masterplug 8 Way Surge Protector. at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for . surge protection will make it safer too.

[smart1]

love that rack,dont fancey doing me one