thermostat question

[Abaddon91]

hey has anyone ever tryed to wire a house thermostat like a honeywell and use it for a reptile rack would it be possable to wire in a strip or something

[kitedemon]

I have never heard of doing anything along those lines. I would assume that it would be very similar to a johnson or ranco that are designed for industrial uses. The question is why? There are systems proven to work and in some cases designed for that exact task. Why risk fire and injury for no reason? I am not much of a fan of off/on type but the hydrofarm if you don't need tons of power is 29.53 at amazon a household t-stat isn't cheaper so why bother?

[Anya]

This is actually something I've been wondering for awhile now. It really would be awesome if someone with technical smarts could answer.

Yeah, you can ask 'why' to a lot of things, but sometimes maybe it should be...'why not'? lol.

I dunno. I'm tired. Not sure I'm making sense.

[mpkeelee]

im sure some crafty person could tell you how, but i would rather use a thermostat that was made for this.

[Anya]

Well...Many thermostats we use WEREN'T made for controlling temps for reptiles. (That said, I agree with the spirit of your statement.)

I'm really just curious.

[kitedemon]

Ok there are three types of house hold t-stats mercury switches (older styles) bi-metal springs and digital. They all basically do the same when the temp dips below the set point the switch triggers a relay that starts the heating system. The problem is you either have to place the whole T-stat where you want it in the enclosure... very impractical or you could modify a digital by moving the resistive sensor to a probe. The problem with that is the resistive sensor works be the changing resistance to a small electrical current the addition of a wire alters the resistance and the calibration (which isn't great to start with goes out the window.) The prices of house hold t-stats around me any way range from 50$ to 300$. That means a t-stat designed for controlling a heat pad (greenhouse hydrofarm) is less cash and a reptile designed one is in the range of 100$ which is not that much more. The last issue is accuracy the reptile designed ones are spec'd at 1ºF +/- I have 3 herpstat pros and a ND and II. I can tell you that they are all with in 0.6 of correct (measured with a platinum tipped RTD traceable thermometer) And most are better than 0.5ºF A ranco johnson or hydrofarm are spec'd at 2ºF +/- a household spring type is 5ºF +/- most keepers find that unacceptable for temps that you could set at 92º and have 97º.

I personally believe in using a product designed to do what you are attempting to use it for as well. The Herpstat, Helix, VE series, Ecocene, and a couple of others have been designed from the ground up and not adapted from else's where. They are my first choice, I also understand that small run electronics are not going to be cheap. There are a few that have been adapted to our purpose for years, johnson, ranco and hydrofarm is the new comer but they seem to work reasonably well in lower voltage applications.

[Vypyrz]

I tried to rig one up once and it didn't work very well. Fortunately, it was just an experimental enclosure that I was trying it on. In addition to what Kitedemon said, keep in mind, that some of the cheaper home thermostats are battery powered, and I don't know if they have some type of auto-shutoff circuit should the batteries fail.

[Abaddon91]

Kite that was really informative thanks just daydreaming and wondering

[SlitherinSisters]

I have wondered this myself and didn't even think about how different they are. You can't just plug them into the wall, they don't have an external temperature probe, and they adjust temps a bit differently. Great points Kite!

[kitedemon]

The only useful mod for one I can think on is to control an oil heater in a snake room, but that would mean wiring the heater to the t-stat and setting up the correct relay that most central heating systems has build in. I am just not sure that there would be any benefit at all, low to no cost savings and no advantages. At least I can think on none anyway.