Re: built in forced air heating for rack
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kaduhn1
The Golden rods are dehumidifiers- I would assume that with a hot air heater pushing air thru I would lose humidity right? I would guess i would need to add humidity by maybe adding a water tray in between the heater and the rack. The more I think about this with the humidity problems I would probably have the more work it seems like :/
Yes everything that heat air tends to drop humidity. You know this with forced air it is way dry. Radiant heaters (UTH and RHP) do not change humidity but they also do not heat air. CHEs and lamps heat air but they change humidity. You can't have one with out the other. That said warm air is capable of caring more water vapour than cool so with enough water mass the humidity issues can be over come. I don't use the golden rods myself. I have a cool room (sub 68º three months of the year today it is 57º) So I get the problem very well. Mine is so poorly insulated that I needed 3800 watts running most of the time to hold close to 80º. Far too costly.
My solution is interesting time consuming fiddly and expensive. The golden rod would be far easier.
I did this hot and cool UTHs to control surface temps. I needed top and bottom zones for each as there is so much difference between the bottom and top heat could not be balanced. (read 4 probes two for hot and two for cool I use a herpstat 4) This is not even close to enough the rack is fully insulated especially the bottom. I use 1/2 inch foam and 2 inch on the top and bottom. This is still not enough I have redesigned the whole rack as well. I cut 6 1/4 slots on the bottom of each shelf halfway through the material (upgraded to 1/2 inch PVCx) There are drilled holes at the end from the tub below. The slots are covered with flexwatt convection currents move air from the tun to run under the UTH and pick up some heat from the warmth of the rack directly and return back to the tub. This helped a fair bit and in combination it holds enough as the flexwatt is regulated the temp of the rack it contacts is constant so the air temp is stable. If you have a damp finger you can feel the air movement. I also draw air in to the tubs from the warm (back) end of the rack so the air before entering has a bit of chance to warm. All told it ran slightly over $1000 to mod the rack it might have been cheaper to build from scratch but maybe maybe not hard to say.
As I said the golden rods are likely easier and cheaper.
The next question is do you need the rack at all. Perhaps custom plastic enclosures would be easier to hold correct temps. I find them far easier and cheaper to do so. It is just a space issue.
