DIY 12VDC water warmer

[Bear Foot Farm]

Umm.. Actually, some kinds of batteries are designed to be fully discharged. I use marine batteries on my e-fence for the horses and we discharge them completely and then power them on a charger.

No,
They are not meant to be FULLY discharged at any time.
It shortens the life of the battery
It should never be more than 50% discharged:

http://marine-electronics.net/techarticle/battery_faq/b_faq.htm


Quote:

 

[BMaverick]

No,
They are not meant to be FULLY discharged at any time.
It shortens the life of the battery
It should never be more than 50% discharged:

http://marine-electronics.net/techarticle/battery_faq/b_faq.htm

I'm just happy that my setup has energy input and not to worry about DoD issues.

 

[Snarg]

It has been a couple months now, any updates?

 

[BMaverick]

Well, things stayed just that, warm for the water.

As Spring is here, this thread will be very slow until the late fall or early winter.

One another note, how to keep the birds COOL here in the south.

 

[OldGuy43]

Well, things stayed just that, warm for the water.

As Spring is here, this thread will be very slow until the late fall or early winter.

One another note, how to keep the birds COOL here in the south.

Last year we got a large reflective tarp and covered about 1/3 of their run. Since they didn't stay under it much (and it was rather expensive) we're considering using a smaller one this year.I've heard of folks using swamp coolers and such, but I think that's going a little overboard, and the high humidity they create could be problematic in my opinion. It got up to 113° and we had 100°+ days for about 2 months straight here last year, but we only lost one hen, and we aren't sure that was due to the heat.

 

[ECBW]

OP, I applaud your creativity and sharing. Happy to hear that it kept the water from freezing. A piece of knowledge that will come in handy.

One suggestion, is it possible to incorporate a thermostat to turn off the heater when ambient temp is high enough?