Is Too Large a Fan an Issue?

[donrae]

My Honey built me a nice large cabinet incubator

. It's big and heavy, cause of course his thinking is go big or don't bother. It's 1 1/4" plywood, basically a box 2x2 and 3 feet tall. We've got 3 shelves made of a left over piece of cattle panel, so there's nothing to obstruct airflow. A Fall Harvest thermostat that seems to be doing a nice job holding temp.

We started with 2 small computer fans, one blowing up and one down, on the ceiling. Temp varied 10 degrees F from the top shelf to the bottom. We put a 10" desk fan on the top shelf and pointed it toward the ceiling to help diffuse the air current. The temp is now about a degree difference, good enough IMO. It just seems to be quite a bit of air moving in the box, is this a problem? I'm doing dry hatches and humidity seems to run in the mid 30s.

Thanks

 

[donrae]

Okay, so the pics are kind of backward lol. Outside on the bottom, inside on the top. The thermostat is mounted to the exterior of the cabinet, with the probe snaked through a hole in the side and setting on the middle shelf. The paper bowl and plate were for the thermometers to set on, the wire shelves' holes are too large for them to set there. I wanted something air could circulate through easily, well I sure got that!

The plan is to use the turners from a Little Giant, etc on each shelf. I have one currently and would manually turn eggs in cartons until I can get more turners.

We found another fan, about the same size (10 inches) we removed from the stand. I will try putting it on the bottom of the incubator and see if I get stable temps throughout. The current fan with the base is too tall to fit under the bottom shelf, so it's taking up a shelf I could be using for eggs (eventually).

2 60 watt bulbs in the ceiling currently. We started with smaller wattage but it couldnt' get up to temp. Since it's up and holding, I may try going back to a lower watt to maintain temp. This thermostat keeps cycling on and off constantly, I don't know what's up with that. I thought the last unit we had it in wasn't insulated enough, this box doesn't seem to bleed off any heat. didn't realize the pic is so blurry, the thermostat is Fall Harvest, model FHP-UT115. It's also marketed as The Incredible Incubator Thermostat.

Thanks for your input!

 

[MeepBeep]

This thermostat keeps cycling on and off constantly, I don't know what's up with that.

Where is the probe in relationship to the heat source? This could also just be the fact that the thermostat has a tight swing, is the swing adjustable?

Also consider putting the big fan up front, tilted at about a 45° angle upwards and back towards the lights instead of straight up at the lights, and mount the computer fans up front blowing backwards as well instead of downward this will create better rotational air flow... And if possible you can better this rotational air flow by putting a swoop or angled board behind the lights... I would put the temp probe for the thermostat in the location marked with the green star...

Quick and dirty picture of the concept...

 

[Sally Sunshine]

My Honey built me a nice large cabinet incubator

. It's big and heavy, cause of course his thinking is go big or don't bother. It's 1 1/4" plywood, basically a box 2x2 and 3 feet tall. We've got 3 shelves made of a left over piece of cattle panel, so there's nothing to obstruct airflow. A Fall Harvest thermostat that seems to be doing a nice job holding temp.

We started with 2 small computer fans, one blowing up and one down, on the ceiling. Temp varied 10 degrees F from the top shelf to the bottom. We put a 10" desk fan on the top shelf and pointed it toward the ceiling to help diffuse the air current. The temp is now about a degree difference, good enough IMO. It just seems to be quite a bit of air moving in the box, is this a problem? I'm doing dry hatches and humidity seems to run in the mid 30s.

Thanks

Hi @donrae I would think if your hygro is calibrated and you keep a close eye on your eggs or your weighing you should be ok. I am not liking a degree difference in temps to be honest. can you possibly post images for us to help fine tune it before you actually set eggs? Have you see the cabinet cooler bator in my signature below? it took a bit of fine tuning before we got ours to work without and temp variances. and have you checked temps ALL over the bator?
Hugs, and Blessings
SallyAnn

 

[donrae]

Thanks Sally! I'll take all the help I can get. I've read your thread, DMRippy's thread, and a few others on larger cabinet bators. I'll get pics up later today after the house clears out

.

I have two of these.... http://incubatorwarehouse.com/incubator-thermometer-hygrometer.html and I've put them on the top and bottom shelves, with the thermostat probe in the middle.

Setting eggs...yeah....apparently my Honey knew this was a safe time to build be a large incubator

. My older girls have all but called it quits for the year, and the younger girls were from later hatches, so no eggs yet. I'm going to have to borrow eggs for test hatches in this thing. Never thought I'd see the day!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Thanks Sally! I'll take all the help I can get. I've read your thread, DMRippy's thread, and a few others on larger cabinet bators. I'll get pics up later today after the house clears out

.

I have two of these.... http://incubatorwarehouse.com/incubator-thermometer-hygrometer.html and I've put them on the top and bottom shelves, with the thermostat probe in the middle.

Setting eggs...yeah....apparently my Honey knew this was a safe time to build be a large incubator

. My older girls have all but called it quits for the year, and the younger girls were from later hatches, so no eggs yet. I'm going to have to borrow eggs for test hatches in this thing. Never thought I'd see the day!

When I googled fall harvest thermostat a bunch of kinds came up of course so that didnt help me see what you have going, and where you have it placed, so again images are key to help!

sounds like you have a great "hold" on what you needed to do!

but I would have expected no less from you,

I think with just a tad more tuning you will have perfection! I will keep my eye out for your posting!

 

[donrae]

Pics pending...

 

[Sally Sunshine]

looks Great!

Wonder what would happen if you boxed it in with sheet insulation if that would help the cycling process?

I also wonder if you had the fan towards the back shooting front across the fans, and if that would hold a less variant temp?

I wouldn't go with less watt bulbs in case one blows, I would also put your turners in and check temp stability. all over the place. do you have a spot check?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

adding what specs does the fan have on it?

 

[donrae]

What's a spot check?

The big fan is just a Honeywell desk fan, it's 10 inches with a base for standing on a desk.

So, Honey went to work today and I've been free to play with the incubator a bit. I put the fan on the bottom, pointing up. At low or high I couldn't get good temps, the top was 102-103 and the bottom was 98ish. I've got it back on the top shelf, kind of angled toward the roof and the front both, blowing across the lights and the little computer fans that are still running. I'll check temps here shortly.

I have a lot of 1inch Styrofoam and could use it to insulate the inside, I guess. It doesn't seem to leak much heat though. I have my pill planner setting on top of the cabinet and pick it up twice a day, the bottom never feels warm at all

I only have one turner at this point, and it's busy in my crappy Little Giant until next Friday. When I lock those eggs, I'll put the turner in the cabinet and monitor temps.

guess it's a good thing I don't have eggs available, I have lots of time to monitor and troubleshoot. But it's killing me!