Rack Owners advice needed!

[Annarose15]

If you are able to dedicate a room to the rack -> I closed the heater vent to the room and put a towel under the door to hold in heat, and then got a space heater (electric, ~$40) from Home Depot that has a built-in thermostat that turns it on and off. It helped enormously to bump the ambient rooms temps from my usual 68deg in winter to ~76deg, with about a $35/month increase in my electricity bill. It may not be the most energy-efficient setup, but it worked for me.

[kitedemon]

Hey I get your issues I have a rack in a room that is currently 62ºF. It took lots of tinkering to get the rack correct. It is currently sitting at 90.6 hot spot and 80.6 cool end with an ambient air temp of 79.9.

I tried a few variations and found what worked for me. I have a enclosed rack 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick pvcx. The Rack is sitting up on 2"thick foam insulation and has one inch thick foam on the top and sides. This helps in holding the heat produced by the flex watt. The bottom most slot is not used for snakes as it is too cold. The top one I usually don't have any in either as it runs a bit warm (hot spot is fine but the ambient air is 84 and cool end temp is 82.7 the air temp is the deal breaker)

I found that the inaccuracy of the ranco I borrowed combined with its tendency to over shoot made it too scary for my taste (remember it is in a cool room that is not at all stable it worked great if I wanted to run the oil heater that cost 100$ every 2 months) I found that I needed the fast adjustments of a proportional unit to keep the over shooting to a dull roar.

I have run 4 inch flex watt for the hot spot and used 17 for the rest. The 17 is a god send it simply will not get much hotter than 87º ever and in place and in practice in the rack when I tested it I maxed out at 83º so in a failure it will not over heat. The probes are on the middle slot on top of the thickness of plastic of the tubs between the flex watt and probe it gives more accurate temps. I have probes for both hot and cool ends. The lower most slot also has the same flex watt but has an enclosed front so the heat is trapped there.

That is my best solution I came up with it is far less costly than the oil heater in my case and I even saved enough off the power bill this winter to completely pay for the 17 inch flex watt and the herpstat pro I use for the rack control.

The key points is minimize the heat loss out the top and sides, protect the bottom from using the floor as a heat sync. Generate a hot air pocket that will escape up rather than out to help with the ambient air temps in the rack. Make sure that you don't have dramatic swings from the slow response of the controller. The air vents have upward facing scoops placed on them to attempt to draw warmer lighter air in and leave the heavier cool air alone I am not sure if it made any difference at all I have not tinkered with it as it is hard to get at them. I'd also as the complete tub is on flex watt highly recommend a back up on/off T-stat in case of failure.

This is MY solution it has worked in both hot and cool temps with very even and contestant temps it seemed expensive but it reality I have saved on power quite dramatically so it really didn't cost that much to do. I am sure there are 100 other ways to manage the same issues but this one is mine hopefully there are some ideas here that might help you solve yours.
Alex

[AMBiEN22]

Thank you so much Kite, you've been helping me since day one i cannot thank you enough!

Hey I get your issues I have a rack in a room that is currently 62ºF. It took lots of tinkering to get the rack correct. It is currently sitting at 90.6 hot spot and 80.6 cool end with an ambient air temp of 79.9.

I tried a few variations and found what worked for me. I have a enclosed rack 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick pvcx. The Rack is sitting up on 2"thick foam insulation and has one inch thick foam on the top and sides. This helps in holding the heat produced by the flex watt. The bottom most slot is not used for snakes as it is too cold. The top one I usually don't have any in either as it runs a bit warm (hot spot is fine but the ambient air is 84 and cool end temp is 82.7 the air temp is the deal breaker)

I found that the inaccuracy of the ranco I borrowed combined with its tendency to over shoot made it too scary for my taste (remember it is in a cool room that is not at all stable it worked great if I wanted to run the oil heater that cost 100$ every 2 months) I found that I needed the fast adjustments of a proportional unit to keep the over shooting to a dull roar.

I have run 4 inch flex watt for the hot spot and used 17 for the rest. The 17 is a god send it simply will not get much hotter than 87º ever and in place and in practice in the rack when I tested it I maxed out at 83º so in a failure it will not over heat. The probes are on the middle slot on top of the thickness of plastic of the tubs between the flex watt and probe it gives more accurate temps. I have probes for both hot and cool ends. The lower most slot also has the same flex watt but has an enclosed front so the heat is trapped there.

That is my best solution I came up with it is far less costly than the oil heater in my case and I even saved enough off the power bill this winter to completely pay for the 17 inch flex watt and the herpstat pro I use for the rack control.

The key points is minimize the heat loss out the top and sides, protect the bottom from using the floor as a heat sync. Generate a hot air pocket that will escape up rather than out to help with the ambient air temps in the rack. Make sure that you don't have dramatic swings from the slow response of the controller. The air vents have upward facing scoops placed on them to attempt to draw warmer lighter air in and leave the heavier cool air alone I am not sure if it made any difference at all I have not tinkered with it as it is hard to get at them. I'd also as the complete tub is on flex watt highly recommend a back up on/off T-stat in case of failure.

This is MY solution it has worked in both hot and cool temps with very even and contestant temps it seemed expensive but it reality I have saved on power quite dramatically so it really didn't cost that much to do. I am sure there are 100 other ways to manage the same issues but this one is mine hopefully there are some ideas here that might help you solve yours.
Alex