Water heating????

In about a week or so I am going to start remodeling an extra room in my garage. I want to re insulate and put up new dry wall and I plan on this being my reptile room. I am going to build permanent racks along one wall as to size I don;t know yet most likely cb70's. But wanted to know the most efficient way to heat possibly 40 tubs and the rest larger tanks for my larger snakes. I was brainstorming with my brother and thought "what about water?". I figure I could have a reservoir (30 gallons) put some sort of heating element in it connected to a t stat. then I could run either copper tubing or clear vinyl tubing under the tubs and just pump the water through that. Any one ever try this or seen it done. I am curious as to how it will work. THanks. Figure I might try this on a smaller scale first.

Same as radiant floor heating. Saves on a large area, not so sure about something that could be heated with heat tape though.

Sounds like a good idea though. You could use like 1/4" copper routed into the rack system with a small like 10 gallon water heater with a pump.

Yeah thats what I was thinking because I figured it up ans it would take about 50 feet or flexwatt if not more for what I want to build. I am building in lots of room to grow. It is going to be a while anyways gonna cost me some money to get that room ready its approx 20 x 20 feet. When I start i will post pics for everyone.

Looking forward to some pics!

You would probably need bigger than a 10 gallon water heater to do the job. The most important thing to get right is the water flow, too fast and heat will not transfer, too slow and too much heat will transfer. This is all dependent on pump size (gpm). Plus I would assume that you would want individual control on the cages and racks. In order to do this you would have to install solenoids and bypass valves with multiple t-stats to control them. Basically what you would have is a boiler to heat your racks and cages. Good luck,
Wil

Constant flow, set the water heater at the desired temp and let it flow. Even better would be a tankless setup.

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Originally Posted by reptilian74

You would probably need bigger than a 10 gallon water heater to do the job. The most important thing to get right is the water flow, too fast and heat will not transfer, too slow and too much heat will transfer. This is all dependent on pump size (gpm). Plus I would assume that you would want individual control on the cages and racks. In order to do this you would have to install solenoids and bypass valves with multiple t-stats to control them. Basically what you would have is a boiler to heat your racks and cages. Good luck,
Wil

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Yeah I though of that I may not have individual controls for each tank but may split it into 3 columns (at 10 high each column) or something along those lines and anything that has special heat requirements will have its own heating system most likely flexwatt. that way I can have the minimal amount of energy used to properly keep my animals. I will definetly build in several safeties so I don't cook my animals :(. I am trying to find some sort of solenoid I could use inline which I will hook to another t-stat which will activate at 90 degrees or whatever I need at the time to close a valve in case it gets too hot that way it will bypass the racks and go back to the holding tanks.

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Originally Posted by Nightmare Creatures

Constant flow, set the water heater at the desired temp and let it flow. Even better would be a tankless setup.

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Yeah that would be nice. Well its still an idea I am sure I will be on here asking you guys for helps when I start making it. lol.

You wouldn't want to pay the bill for a tankless water heater running with a constant flow. That means the heater would never turn off. Another problem with constant flow is that the water temp would be falling much faster, therefore the heater working more, thus using more energy. Also if you have a constant flow how will the temps be regulated?

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Originally Posted by sg1trogdor

Yeah I though of that I may not have individual controls for each tank but may split it into 3 columns (at 10 high each column) or something along those lines and anything that has special heat requirements will have its own heating system most likely flexwatt. that way I can have the minimal amount of energy used to properly keep my animals. I will definetly build in several safeties so I don't cook my animals :(. I am trying to find some sort of solenoid I could use inline which I will hook to another t-stat which will activate at 90 degrees or whatever I need at the time to close a valve in case it gets too hot that way it will bypass the racks and go back to the holding tanks.

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Just control the solenoid with a thermostat. If it were me and I was going to do it I would set the water to about 100-125 degrees depending on room conditions. I thought of doing this a few years ago, but I didn't want to go through the undertaking. Chillers and Boilers are great ways to Cool/Heat spaces though.

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Originally Posted by reptilian74

You wouldn't want to pay the bill for a tankless water heater running with a constant flow. That means the heater would never turn off. Another problem with constant flow is that the water temp would be falling much faster, therefore the heater working more, thus using more energy. Also if you have a constant flow how will the temps be regulated?

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I should be more specific when I say water heater I mean some sort of water heating element. lol. Damn me and my generalizations hehehe.
I am going to have a holding tank with i will say 20 gallons. The holding tank will have a water heater such as a fish tank heater but the one i am going to get is actually stronger (block heater for a truck) I will have my t-stat probe in the holding tank and the heater controlled by the t-stat. Then I will then have a 120 low pressure pump pumping the already warmed water through the tubes that I will route and back to the holding tank. This way I only have a low voltage pump and one heating element rather than alot of flexwatt.

Hi,

How feasable would solar heating for the water be? I always heard that works quite efficiently - don't know if I'd trust the batteries in an extended light drought though.


del

Yeah I was looking at that while trying to track down a motorized ball valve its a bit expensive. Other than that it seems like it would work pretty good.