Heat sink question

[xcalibor67]

After building a new "Homemade" incubator, im now looking into a heat sink. I have seen many people use bottles of water and various other things, but im wondering about steel as a heat sink. I have a piece of .5 thick steel 20"x20" that would fit nicely in my incubator. From my understanding of thermal conductivity, steel would be ok. Other than being in direct sunlight most materials heat/cool-off to match the surrounding air temps. My question is...would the steel plate work if placed on the bottom of incubator, with the egg turner sitting directly on the steel?. I dont think the steel would at any time give off a higher temp than the surrounding air?. Just figured with it being 1/2 thick and 20"x20" it would have a great mass for storing heat. thanks for any help.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I am a tinkerer, but have never tried it. Sure would be heavy. I have seen people use heat-sinks, but just for info---I have never used a heat-sink in the incubators---never needed them. I have had several styrofoam incubators and cabinets going at the same time. The eggs themselves work as a heat-sink.

I agree it want get hotter that the incubator heats it. Try it if you want---my guess is no one else has ever used one that big!! Do let us know how it worked out.

 

[xcalibor67]

Thanks PD. The bator is a decent sized sink base i modified, so its fairly roomy. Just figured with the mass, it woulds surely help with short cycling on the digi-stats. and like you...i just have to find out, lol...You always heard about the lil boy who tooks his toys apart to see how they worked...well i wasnt that lil boy, i was the one who took apart the toy, they took apart the components to see how they worked...

 

[wynn4578]

You know. I've never used heat sinks in an incubator and never really had the need.... at least I thought I didn't. It wouldn't improve my hatch rates they're already pretty good but if it slowed my cycle times it could save me some electricity. If I were going to put heat sinks in my incubator I wouldn't put them directly under my eggs though. It seems that would affect the air flow and cause cold/hot spots in the incubator but if you had some mounted off to the side then maybe they would help. My incubator ( which is waiting on parts because lightening took out the control boards a couple of weeks ago) cycles once about every 2 minutes.

 

[xcalibor67]

Now that you mentioned that... My envision was to leave the egg turner on the bottom of the bator, as it sits in the pic. The fan is about 11 inches directly above (centered) over egg turner. Will the air blowing directly on top of the eggs be bad? Do i need to lift the egg turner up off the bottom a inch or so? You got me worried i may have to change the whole fan, heating bulbs/elements around? Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[wynn4578]

This is a pic of the cabinet that I am currently building for someone. I'll try to get some better pics tomorrow but in this pic you'll notice the long slot at the bottom. This is the vent. All of the shelves sit above the vent. At the top ( not pictured) is the return. Much like a heat/air system in your home. This set up creates circulation that eliminates dead spots and ensures that all your eggs receive the proper heat.

 

[wynn4578]

Actually you can see it in that pic. The return is the 2 large holes at the top on each side. 120mm fans mount over these holes and blow hot air from the top down the back duct and out the vent at the bottom.

 

[wynn4578]

the only thing I would probably do differently in your is try to separate the heat source from the eggs. I would be concerned that when they kick on there would be hot spots on the eggs closest to the lights.

 

[PD-Riverman]

if it slowed my cycle times it could save me some electricity.. My incubator cycles once about every 2 minutes.

OK. I think a little different. Wouldn't your on time have to be on longer because of the heat-sink having to be re-heated each cycle time? Thinking it might stay off longer but will have to stay on longer?

 

[wynn4578]

OK. I think a little different. Wouldn't your on time have to be on longer because of the heat-sink having to be re-heated each cycle time? Thinking it might stay off longer but will have to stay on longer?

good point and probably right. Heat is energy so actually once the incubator equalized the cycle times would probably be the same since it would still take the same energy to heat any gain it heat from the heat sinks would be lost by re heating or as you suggested even take longer since it would take more energy to re heat the heat sink each time.