FlexWatt Heat Tape for Incubators?

[Lortiz]

I saw the stuff advertised on e-bay. It looks great and all and I've heard of a lot of people having problems using light bulbs in their home made bators (regulating temp and all that) so I was wondering if anyone has tried to use this stuff in their home made bator yet?

If not I could really use a math expert on this (since the only math I'm good at is apparently chicken math...)

It's a 110v output and each 4"x12" strip will use 8 watts of power. I'm not an electrician and horrible at math but how much space would a piece that size effectively heat?

Do you think this would be an effective way to heat an incubator?

BTW here is the e-bay listing with videos: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330405659667&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en
Thanks for input!

ETA: Spellcheck

I am looking into using this to heat an incubator as well. Incubator Warehouse sells it and has some videos and useful information. They also sell DIY kits for making your own incubator. They have the IncuKit MINI for Desktop Incubators and the IncuKit XL for cabinet incubators. The information for these kits is also useful for determining the amount of heat tape to use for your incubator. They say "There are several factors that determine how much power will be required to heat your container up to the appropriate temperature to hatch eggs. The size of the container, how well it is insulated, the room temperature and how much the room temperature fluctuates will all have a significant impact. To determine which option is best for you [wattage of heater], a simple light bulb test will help. Get light bulbs that will generate enough heat to easily warm your incubator to at least 100 degrees F. See how many watts are required and that will help you know which option to select." I would guess that if the temperature is close to 100 deg F you might want to go up just a bit in wattage.

 

[Kwikpets]

Okay, I just read that you should use 10-15 watts of heat per cubic foot (1 cubic foot = 1'X1'X1'). The 3" flexwatt gives off 10 watts so I might go with that instead of the 4" (dunno why the smaller size is higher watts....) so if I made my bator 3 cubic feet I would need 30-45 watts to heat it (leaning towards the higher side) which would be 3-4.5 feet of flexwatt. My math right so far? I know my brain is already hurting. IDK how big a hovabator is but if I did I would be able to scale it down a lot better from what you told me. Do you guys think I should lean more towards the lower watt or the higher watt size? (I haven't made my bator yet so the 3 cubic feet is just an example. IDK how big mine will be yet).

Thanks for the great input so far guys!

smallish piece of Flexwatt may heat an incubator to the proper temperature. It might just take a long time to do so and may not have the same recoverability as other heating systems.
https://www.kwikpets.com/products/f10scxd-veterinary-cleaner-200-ml

 

[Kwikpets]

I think you might be talking apples versus oranges. I wouldn't guess that you'd need the same wattage of heat tape as you would light bulb necessarily. You might want to check out some info about the heat tape. Also, I'd think that how well the incubator is sealed and insulated, in addition to the amount and type of material used as a heat sink would changethe needed wattage an awful lot.

In the FAQ, it states that you should not cover more than 1/3 of a reptile's cage bottom with the Flexwatt, leaving them animal room to escape should the thermostat fail and let the tape get too hot. To me, that would indicate that the heat produced is somewhat low intensity, if the animal is generally able to lay directly on top of it. In that case, I would guess that you would need more rather than less to heat an incubator. With a lower intensity heat, there would be less ability to recover from temperature swings, like those introduced by opening the 'bator. This could be abated, somewhat, by the addition of a heat sink (something that holds its temperature better than air). Capped jars of water or fire bricks might be used in such a fashion.

If left alone to run, a smallish piece of Flexwatt may heat an incubator to the proper temperature. It might just take a long time to do so and may not have the same recoverability as other heating systems. That's just my $0.02.

http://www.reptilebasics.com/flexwatt-faq.html