Thermostat Questions

[Bechard4]

Hi guys

I recently purchased my first rack system and also my first Thermostat, and am a little confused on what settings i should be using.

I have a Vivarium Electronics VE-100

What temperature is ideal to set the day time temp at ( no breeding Plans)
Also i don't know what to set the Hysterysis at if any

Sorry for the basic questions but i just want to get it right

Thanks

[Rickys_Reptiles]

Hi guys

I recently purchased my first rack system and also my first Thermostat, and am a little confused on what settings i should be using.

I have a Vivarium Electronics VE-100

What temperature is ideal to set the day time temp at ( no breeding Plans)
Also i don't know what to set the Hysterysis at if any

Sorry for the basic questions but i just want to get it right

Thanks

The day AND night temps can be the same. The general acceptance is that the hot spot should be between 88-92 degrees.

No idea what Hysterysis even means...and I even read the definition a few times! lol

[LLLReptile]

As Ricky said, the day and night temps can be the same. 88 to 92 is ideal.

I'm not sure what you mean by the Hysterysis setting - I don't see anything about that in the product description.

-Jen

[jclaiborne]

Hysteresis basically is a property in which the output is not a direct function of the input. Or there is a lag between output and input. So with a thermostat if you set it to maintain 90 degrees, it may switch on at 87 degree and switch off at 92 degrees. A VE-100 is an on/off thermostat so I don't see how you could hack it to control hysteresis. Generally to control that you would need some form of a Data Aquisition sytem and software to run it. You would then have to "hack" the thermostat somehow (write your own code) to control it and override the current software that is operating it so it never fluctuates away from the set point.

[Pythonfriend]

different examples:

lets say you have a thermostat set to keep something at exactly 90 degrees. it would go on-off-on-off-on-off very very rapidly.

you can stabilize the whole thing by having it switch on at 89 and off at 91. it doesnt switch on and off constantly, it takes a time, but the temperature fluctuates between 89 and 91.

hysterysis is a different method. the thermostat will try to keep it at 90 degrees, but will take its own event history into account to avoid the constant on and off. it could be as simple as a minimum wait period before it switches on or off.

some thermostats dont really switch the heater on and off at all, instead they dim it to the value that is appropriate at the moment and keep adjusting. these can run a 50 watt maximum UTH at a constant output level of 14 watts or 22 watts or whatever is necessary.

its just about the quality of the design of the electronics; if an UTH is switched on and off all the time, switching between 100% and 0% energy output, it could conceivably run out and fail faster, the materials might wear out sooner. if the thermostats carefully regulates the UTH between 30% and 60% output level, without too much jumps and corrections, in a smooth day and night cycle, it will be really gentle for the heater and the materials will last longer.

[Bechard4]

Thanks guys for the info

This is what it says for Hysterysis in the manual that came with the thermostat and there is a setting for it on the VE-100

Hysterysis- This setting is the number of degrees below the set point that power to the heater will be turned back on . For example: A set point of 90 with a hysterysis of 2 will turn power to the heater back on when the probe temperature falls to 88.

Would it be better to upgrade to a better Thermostat like the VE-300

thanks again