Am I doing something wrong?

[dillymann]

Ok so I bought an original herpstat from a guy that kept it as a backup and said he used it a handful of times. Im having problems with it fluctuating too much. When the light is red and it is heating it makes the heat tape get really hot and then when it is green its ok but sometimes it gets too hot? And shuts off. For example i have it set to 88 but sometimes it hits 88.1-88.2 and it shuts off the herpstat and then there is no heat. What am I doing wrong? Any help is really appreciated


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[Stewart_Reptiles]

Where is your prob?

[CptJack]

...No, it's basically supposed to turn power on and off to the heat tape to keep it from getting too hot or too cold. So when the light's red, it's going 'whoops, too hot, turn that off', and when it goes green it's going 'too cool, turn it back on'. Cycle and repeat. That's kind of how thermostats on heaters of all sorts work.

.2 degrees fluctuation's WELL within the range of fine.

**ETA**: (Never mind, I can't read. Whoops)

[dillymann]

Where is your prob?

On top of the heat tape


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[dillymann]

...No, it's basically supposed to turn power on and off to the heat tape to keep it from getting too hot or too cold. So when the light's red, it's going 'whoops, too hot, turn that off', and when it goes green it's going 'too cool, turn it back on'. Cycle and repeat. That's kind of how thermostats on heaters of all sorts work.

.2 degrees fluctuation's WELL within the range of fine.

But its a proportional stat? Shouldn't it be constant heating?



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[Eric Alan]

But its a proportional stat? Shouldn't it be constant heating?

Step back for a second and think about this question. If it were sending a signal to heat at a constant rate, you might as well have a dimmer switch on your heat tape. The end result would be it becoming either too warm or too cool for your animals.

What it's doing is adjusting for changes in room temperature and providing just the right amount of power to the heat tape in order to reach the temperature you've set. Proportional means that in order to do this, it provides a range of power (anywhere between 0-100%) to reach your set temperature. It's smart enough to know that if you're only 0.1 degrees below the set temperature, it doesn't need full power to get back up to the right temperature.

Does that make sense?

[dillymann]

Yes


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