Building an incubator: Help with wiring...UPDATE: I'm done! :)

[muddstopper]

Ok, the pc fan is 115volts ac. Just plug it into the wall outlet and forget it. Done deal. For the thermostat and light. You will need a old extention cord or old lamp power cord. One wire from the power cord will go directly to your light socket and the other wire will go to your thermostat. It doesnt really matter which wire you choose since you will be using the thermostat to break the continuation of power flow from + to - and it will work in either direction. You will then need to use a third wire to hook between the thermostat and the light socket. The thermostat will work like a light switch, turning the light on/off as the temperature rises and falls.

You might find your pc fan to be a bit large for the 100qt cooler, but those fans come in so many sizes, it would be really hard to say until you have tried it.

 

[rrhall]

If the fan ends up pushing to much air,you can hook a ceiling fan three speed switch to it and slow it down that way.I just built a homemade incubator and I had to slow my fans down and that is what I ended up doing.Works good so far,been running for about 14 days right now,8 days with eggs in it,they should hatch on the 1st.Good luck

 

[77horses]

Quote:
OK, so when the thermostat and porcelain light socket are connect, they won't automatically start working? The extension cord, when connected to the thermostat and light and plugged into the wall, will be the power source to them, am I right? Just making sure I understand it.

Also, when you say "one wire from the power cord", what do you mean? Do you snip off the outside plastic layering of the extension cord and there will be two wires in the cord and one will go to the thermostat and one will go to the porcelain lamp socket? sorry I really don't have any experience with wiring and stuff. An extension cord is a single power cord that plugs into an outlet, right?

One thing I do know is that before I attempt to wire everything together, if I understand it or not, I will show my mom because she's good with wiring. Just to be safe... LOL

Thanks! Oh and the fan does blow quite a lot of air, but the 100q ice chest is pretty big and that way the air spreads the heat throughout the whole incubator. I will see how it works once everything is all set up.

 

[muddstopper]

Quote:
OK, so when the thermostat and porcelain light socket are connect, they won't automatically start working? The extension cord, when connected to the thermostat and light and plugged into the wall, will be the power source to them, am I right? Just making sure I understand it. that is correct. The thermostat setting will determine when the light turns on and off. Most likely when you plug the power cord in, the thermostat will be set high enough to go ahead and turn the light on. To set the temp where you want it to stay, once the temp reaches the proper setting, just turn the thermostat down until the light turns off, you will probably have to play with this setting some. You could start with a lower temperature than desired and gradually turn the thermostat up until it reaches the setting you are looking for.

Also, when you say "one wire from the power cord", what do you mean? Do you snip off the outside plastic layering of the extension cord and there will be two wires in the cord and one will go to the thermostat and one will go to the porcelain lamp socket? sorry I really don't have any experience with wiring and stuff. An extension cord is a single power cord that plugs into an outlet, right?

That is also correct, the power cord will have two wires, one will go to the light socket and the other to the thermostat. You will also have to add a thrid wire that will go from the thermostat to the light socket. You will have one individual wire hooking to each screw on your thermostat and the light socket. If you have more than one wire hooked to any screws, then you will have it hooked up wrong.

One thing I do know is that before I attempt to wire everything together, if I understand it or not, I will show my mom because she's good with wiring. Just to be safe... LOL

Thanks! Oh and the fan does blow quite a lot of air, but the 100q ice chest is pretty big and that way the air spreads the heat throughout the whole incubator. I will see how it works once everything is all set up.

I would definitly make sure someone looks at your setup before you plug it in. Better safe than sorry. If you find the fan speed to be to much for your cooler, purchase a fan control or a adjustable light dimmer switch and hook between the fan and its power cord. This will let you to regulate the fan speed.

 

[Ken H]

If you wire the light this way it will work. Just pretend the wall switch is the thermostat. If you want the fan to run all the time just attach the black wire from the fan to the incoming side of the thermostat and the other wire(white) to the white wire of the power cord with a wire nut. By the way, you will probably find the waterheater thermostat has to wide of operating 'span' to work as an incubator. Span means the number of degrees difference between the 'on' temperature and the 'off' temperature. It will probably be somewhere 5 degrees or more meaning that if you set the temp for 100 degrees it will come on at 100 and won't shut off till it reaches 105 degrees.

 

[77horses]

Quote:
Thanks everyone!

Ken H: on the diagram you made, it says at the bottom 115 from breaker box. What is that?

Thanks again!

 

[77horses]

Quote:
OK, so when the thermostat and porcelain light socket are connect, they won't automatically start working? The extension cord, when connected to the thermostat and light and plugged into the wall, will be the power source to them, am I right? Just making sure I understand it. that is correct. The thermostat setting will determine when the light turns on and off. Most likely when you plug the power cord in, the thermostat will be set high enough to go ahead and turn the light on. To set the temp where you want it to stay, once the temp reaches the proper setting, just turn the thermostat down until the light turns off, you will probably have to play with this setting some. You could start with a lower temperature than desired and gradually turn the thermostat up until it reaches the setting you are looking for.

Also, when you say "one wire from the power cord", what do you mean? Do you snip off the outside plastic layering of the extension cord and there will be two wires in the cord and one will go to the thermostat and one will go to the porcelain lamp socket? sorry I really don't have any experience with wiring and stuff. An extension cord is a single power cord that plugs into an outlet, right?

That is also correct, the power cord will have two wires, one will go to the light socket and the other to the thermostat. You will also have to add a thrid wire that will go from the thermostat to the light socket. You will have one individual wire hooking to each screw on your thermostat and the light socket. If you have more than one wire hooked to any screws, then you will have it hooked up wrong.

One thing I do know is that before I attempt to wire everything together, if I understand it or not, I will show my mom because she's good with wiring. Just to be safe... LOL

Thanks! Oh and the fan does blow quite a lot of air, but the 100q ice chest is pretty big and that way the air spreads the heat throughout the whole incubator. I will see how it works once everything is all set up.

I would definitly make sure someone looks at your setup before you plug it in. Better safe than sorry. If you find the fan speed to be to much for your cooler, purchase a fan control or a adjustable light dimmer switch and hook between the fan and its power cord. This will let you to regulate the fan speed.

OK, so I need one extension cord that will be split into 2 wires. One wire will go to thermostat, the other will go to the light, and it doesn't matter which wire goes to the thermostat or light. So after these 2 wires from the extension cord are connected to the thermostat and light, the thermostat will still have one screw on it without a wire and the light will still have a wire (black or white???) that won't be connected. So when you say add a third wire, does that mean I need another different extension cord that will split into 2 wires like the 1st one and those 2 wires: one will go to the remaining screw on the thermostat and the remaining wire on the light. And then the wire nut goes somewhere...?

Am I right about this? I'm just trying to make sure that I understand it all before I attempt it.

Thanks!

 

[Ken H]

The diagram was originally drawn for my coop. The circuit is the same. Instead of coming from a circuit breaker box you are using a wall plug. The wiring is the same. Think of each wire as one of the prongs of the wires coming from the plug. If you have 3 wires coming from the plug the green wire(ground) is not shown on the drawing.

 

[77horses]

Quote:
OK thanks!

 

[muddstopper]

Kens diagram is exactly what I was describeing. Where as he is using a light switch, you would use a thermostat. Also what Ken is calling the span between the on/off heat range, is actually called the hysterises, same thing, just different terms. He is correct in that the span or hysterises will probably be to wide for a good temperature control. You can compromise some for the hysterises by placeing the thermostat closer to the heat source, in your case the lightbulb-. What will happen when you do this is that the thermostat will heat up much faster than the rest of the incubator, thus turning off the heat source before the incubator actually gets up to the proper temperature. What will happen then is that even tho the heat source is off, it will still be giving off a great deal amount of heat. Just try unscrewing a light bulb right after you turn it off and you will see what I mean. This is what causes the overshoot in temperature rise that a lot of people have trouble with when using a hotwater heater thermostat/light bulb combination. The fan will continue to circulate this extra heat and the incubator temperature will continue to rise, even tho the heat source is turned off. By experimenting with how close the hotwater heater themostat is in relation to the lightbulb, as well as the temperature setting of the thermostat, you can narrow down the undershoot and overshoot of the temperature inside the incubator. This adjusting and moving the thermostat might take a while to get to where you want it, but is necessary if you want a successfull hatch rate.

After carefull manuvering of the thermostat in the empty incubator and obtaining proper temperature control, you can then place eggs in the incubator. Even the addition of eggs will cause more temperature fluctuations and might require a little fine tuneing of the thermostat settings, but unless the temps shoot way above the desired setting, I would wait 24hr before doing any more adjusting on the thermostat. This will give the eggs time to warmup to the same temperature as the insides of the incubator and give you a more accurate temperature reading on your thermometer.

Humidity will also effect the temperature reading, as the humdity rises, the water vapor adds thermomass to the circulating air. This themomass stores heat makeing the temperature more stable, but everytime you open the incubator lid, you will loose this humidity, and your heat, and you will again see temperature fluctuation until the humidty and temperature stabilizes. For this reason, once the temp and humidity levels are properly set, leave the incubator closed. Only opening on a absolute need to get inside situation. To turn the eggs, just alternate placeing a brick or block of wood under one side or the other of the incubator for each turn. I dont even candle eggs, I like to set them and forget them, what will hatch will hatch, and the rest can be thrown out afterwards.