DIY Temperature Control W/Dimmer Switch (WARNING PIC HEAVY)

[Shera]

This is cool and all, but I really don't think the average person with little to no knowledge of proper wiring should even attempt this, and rather just buy one of these for half the price:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lutron-Cr...0#.UmxbdZGzfRo

This was my thought as well, but I figure if someone is going to do it anyway, it's nice to have comprehensive guide rather than trying to wing it with limited knowledge. Maybe a disclaimer saying that it's for people with wiring experience?

[led-zep]

Ok guys I get it. Not as practical as I had thought. I respect that. I'll go in and add a disclaimer. Thanks

[Shera]

Aaron. With all do respect, if this was even remotely hard I couldn't do it. I'm not saying you need to be an electrician, but if you can change an outlet in your house you can do this.

I agree with you, but there are sometimes 13 year old kids on this site who might mess this up. My husband would have no problem doing this, he does change outlets and has some experience with wiring, so it could be helpful to him. I personally wouldn't attempt this myself, but I've always relied on him for this sort of thing, so I have zero experience.

[led-zep]

I agree with you, but there are sometimes 13 year old kids on this site who might mess this up. My husband would have no problem doing this, he does change outlets and has some experience with wiring, so it could be helpful to him. I personally wouldn't attempt this myself, but I've always relied on him for this sort of thing, so I have zero experience.

That's understandable. Thanks

[rascal_rascal_99]

You can plug one of this into a thermostat and use it as an emergency backup in case your thermostat fails open...if you're using it with one of the on/off thermostats that has a lot of bounce in the temp range, you can take a lot of that +/- bounce out of it also.

[Raven01]

Ok guys I get it. Not as practical as I had thought. I respect that. I'll go in and add a disclaimer. Thanks

It does have a practical application. For those that cannot afford proportional control thermostats could use this in conjunction with a cheaper thermostat. Running let's say IR bulbs of 150W @ 1/3 or even 2/3 rather than a 50W or 100 at full power on a cheap thermostat does two things.
First the bulb lasts much longer and secondly, it reduces the amount the temp can spike if the thermostat fails.
Some tweaking would be required to get it set right and personally I would prefer a dimmer that could be "locked" in at whatever you finally set it at after tweaking to help prevent mishaps.

[jason79]

Using a Metal box with no ground is not the best choice and taking the ground from the dimmer to the plug is not really doing anything, kind of pointless really. I would definitely use a 3 wire cord in this application and ground the metal box.

Also trimming the heat sink off the dimmer will reduce the wattage that the dimmer can handle so make sure it will still handle the load you intend to put on it.

[led-zep]

Using a Metal box with no ground is not the best choice and taking the ground from the dimmer to the plug is not really doing anything, kind of pointless really. I would definitely use a 3 wire cord in this application and ground the metal box.

Also trimming the heat sink off the dimmer will reduce the wattage that the dimmer can handle so make sure it will still handle the load you intend to put on it.

You are absolutely correct. Taking the ground from the dimmer to the outlet is kinda pointless but it was there so I tied it in. Truth is I would use the 3 wire cord to ground the metal box but as I stated before none of my outlets in my house are grounded to the ground bus on the panel ( I didn't build this house ) so that's pointless too. If done properly this way will work fine though, is it the best way NO but it does work. O well if the admins feel this is more of a risk they can delete it I won't have any hard feelings. I was just showing a way I do mine that has worked for a good while. Back in the old days when my house was built a lot of times workers would take a pigtail and jump from the neutral to the ground on outlets, Its not the right way but its what they did a lot of times. For the record I am not saying do this. DO NOT DO THIS! Thanks

[jason79]

You are absolutely correct. Taking the ground from the dimmer to the outlet is kinda pointless but it was there so I tied it in. Truth is I would use the 3 wire cord to ground the metal box but as I stated before none of my outlets in my house are grounded to the ground bus on the panel ( I didn't build this house ) so that's pointless too. If done properly this way will work fine though, is it the best way NO but it does work. O well if the admins feel this is more of a risk they can delete it I won't have any hard feelings. I was just showing a way I do mine that has worked for a good while. Back in the old days when my house was built a lot of times workers would take a pigtail and jump from the neutral to the ground on outlets, Its not the right way but its what they did a lot of times. For the record I am not saying do this. DO NOT DO THIS! Thanks

I was not trying to be hard on you but you have to remember a lot of the people that read this have very little to no knowledge of electricity and if the see an electrician post that this is a good way they might try it. If you are going to build this set up and go with an underground 2 wire cord I recommend you use a plastic box so It is not possible to energize the box accidental. the plastic box is cheaper also.

I'm glad to see another electrician in Texas in to reptiles though.

[led-zep]

I was not trying to be hard on you but you have to remember a lot of the people that read this have very little to no knowledge of electricity and if the see an electrician post that this is a good way they might try it. If you are going to build this set up and go with an underground 2 wire cord I recommend you use a plastic box so It is not possible to energize the box accidental. the plastic box is cheaper also.

I'm glad to see another electrician in Texas in to reptiles though.

NO WORRIES! No hard feelings, you are right plastic would be better. For the record the metal boxes did concern me when first building these. Thats why I tried to stress the outlets with squeeze type terminals versus wrap arounds. To keep stray wires to a bare minimum. Also why I taped the hell outa it.