  
birdie (Atomize)
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 02:22 pm: | 
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Hi folks,
At some point while perusing the archives, I ran across the depiction of PF's bookshelf incubation setup... What I am wondering about is this... It seems that he has a thermostat of some sort patched in between his lights... Sorry if this question seems a bit flaky but i was wondering the schematics of that setup, what kind of thermostat that is and how one would go about utilizing a similar method. I am not to electronics savvy (however this hobby is proving the benefits of aquiring such knowledge) so i was wondering if i could get a breakdown of the method. So the thermostat regulates the 'on' time of the lights in accordance with the temperature setting (temp reaches setting lights go out)??? School me, brain's open... |
Erebus (Debremus)
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 02:30 pm: |
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I read somewhere that a thermostat either utilizes a piggy back plug, where you just plug in the device to be controlled into the thermostat.
The kind that needs to be wired goes like this:
heating device
+
\__thermostat__wall
-
\______________wall
if that makes any sense. basically it gets linked into the positive wire. I also read it doesn't matter if you use positive or negative but for good practice positive should be used. |
rodger rabbit (Skyypilot)
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 02:31 pm: |
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I haven't seen what you're refering to, but I'm an electrical engineer, so I'll explain as well as I can. Think of a thermostat as a 'light switch'. When you flick the switch the light comes on, when you flick it the other way, the light goes off. A thermostat does the same thing. When it detects the temp is too low, it turns on, when the temp is too high, it turns off. All you do is connect the thermostat in series with your heat source. If you don't know how to do that, I suggest getting a buddy who's familiar with electricity to hook it up for you. It's easy to do, but don't fuck up and get yourself or a loved one electrocuted. |
birdie (Atomize)
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 02:42 pm: |
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I suppose i just sold the sbility of a thermostat short... I realize that they monitor temperature and work accordingly, however the concept of using them with lightbulbs never occured to me. I am quasi familiar with rigging up my own stuff to be plugged in to a 115v wall outlet or whatever... So the next step is...
Wall>Therm>Light <---Right???
ANd what about the bulb? Will incandescent do? Thanks guys!!! If all of us here on this board could band together and become one collective super brain... Perhaps we could take over the world... |
rodger rabbit (Skyypilot)
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 02:51 pm: |
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Ok,
your power has three wires. White, black, and green or bare (ground) Connect white to white to supply the neutral to your load. Connect the green or bare wire to the 'ground' source. The black is the 'hot' wire. Connect from your outlet, the black wire to one terminal of the t-stat, and connect the other terminal to the center terminal of your light fixture. You can use the light for a heat source. I'm sure that's what the author of whatever tek you're looking at was speaking of. |
Erebus (Debremus)
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 02:53 pm: |
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Actually that sounds like a very good idea. A light bulb is perfect for maintaining a constant temperature. Careful for anything flamable though, of course.
I was thinking before there has got to be a way to make a rubbermaid into a controlled temperature chamber. It could range from probably 65 or so to 100+ with the use of a fan system for cooling in combination with lightbulbs for heating.
Now I don't know how one could control this with a singular thermostat, but it sure as hell would be neat  |
birdie (Atomize)
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 03:06 pm: |
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Thanks rabbit that was much helpful, so0o0o are you Roger Rabbit P.E.??? Ya the thermostat idea seems like the way to go... a 40W Soft White gets pretty toasty, and within the confinements of an incubation chamber, I would imagine that a few flicks on/off by the thermostat could maintain a fairly constant incubation temperature... Any other ideas about the type of bulb??? |
Erebus (Debremus)
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 03:09 pm: |
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Maybe compact flourescent would be safer in case of some sort of malfunction with the thermostat, but im not sure if it would reach a high enough temperature at all. |
rodger rabbit (Skyypilot)
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 09:46 pm: |
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Unless you're trying to grow in an unheated space in the winter, you don't need heat anyway. Room temp is fine for spawn run as well as fruiting. |
Jorneyer (Jorneyer)
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 11:13 pm: |
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I used a 150 watt reflector bulb which heated fine. In fact in an enclosed space it would be too hot. A flourescent probably will not heat up enough. It should be safe as long as you don't leave bare live wires sticking out.
I actually used a garage sale waterbed heater thermostat. They have a sensor on a wire which I ran into the chamber. |
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