heatreated roosts

[Trefoil]

I have purchased, but not yet installed, radiant heaters intended for baby pigs. They are electric, can be wall or I believe floor mounted panels. I haven't been able to convince myself that the electric would be safe. This is really discouraging. I am so glad it came up.

 

[Garden Peas]

I have purchased, but not yet installed, radiant heaters intended for baby pigs. They are electric, can be wall or I believe floor mounted panels. I haven't been able to convince myself that the electric would be safe. This is really discouraging. I am so glad it came up.

Well, again, I think it would depend on the design. The radiant heating discussed in Craig Hopkins' article, which operates by heated water passing through pipes under the floor, works really well, never gets too hot, and is really safe, as far as I know.

I think there are other systems that work similarly with electric cable laid under the floor, with tile (I dunno what else, would have to check) on top. I think those are pretty safe too. The way they are designed, they never get too hot to walk on with bare human feet.

But lots of things are called "radiant heaters" -- including half the space heaters sold at WalMart -- and those small, not attached to anything, stick up in the air and make lots of heat heaters would be incredibly dangerous in a coop or barn, seems like.

Can you show us what you bought for the pigs?

 

[DylansMom]

I remember reading about this issue with heated roosts. I even talked to Craig Hopkins about it before purchasing Fred, even he said the heat tape can be dangerous. We decided to go with a wall mounted radiant quartz heater. I am a nervous wreck about that every winter as well, it mounts to the wall but then can be swiveled to point down at the roosts. I don't really think it poses much of a fire hazard mounted right under the ceiling and pointed down, but it scares me that one of the birds will flush and fly up into it, if a bird damaged it I am thinking it could very well start a fire. Unfortunately the expense of a radiant floor was just too much, so this is my next best answer.

 

[Garden Peas]

I remember reading about this issue with heated roosts. I even talked to Craig Hopkins about it before purchasing Fred, even he said the heat tape can be dangerous. We decided to go with a wall mounted radiant quartz heater. I am a nervous wreck about that every winter as well, it mounts to the wall but then can be swiveled to point down at the roosts. I don't really think it poses much of a fire hazard mounted right under the ceiling and pointed down, but it scares me that one of the birds will flush and fly up into it, if a bird damaged it I am thinking it could very well start a fire. Unfortunately the expense of a radiant floor was just too much, so this is my next best answer.

I have been trying to figure out if I could do something like that up in the peak of the roof of the converted garden shed coop... Was wondering if I could rig up some kind of hinged metal screen below it mounted in such a way as to keep the birds from accidentally bumping the heater.

 

[MinxFox]

Attention everyone! Craig Hopkins replied to my email about the topic of heated roosts burning peafowl feet. Here is what he said:
Quote: So those of you with heated roosts, make sure you are using the right kind of heat tape.

 

[DylansMom]

Attention everyone! Craig Hopkins replied to my email about the topic of heated roosts burning peafowl feet. Here is what he said:
So those of you with heated roosts, make sure you are using the right kind of heat tape.

That is more or less what he told me when I talked to him by phone, but he also mentioned using the right type of carpet to cover the heat tape and also the importance of checking for wear each year and replacing any that is showing it. He said that if there is too much wear there could be a problem, but I can't remember if it was a problem with it burning the feet or possibly starting a fire. Guess it really doesn't matter as both would be devastating. We finally decided to go with heating the whole shed instead of just the roost because that way our water buckets wouldn't freeze.

 

[MeepBeep]

I have purchased, but not yet installed, radiant heaters intended for baby pigs.  They are electric, can be wall or I believe floor mounted panels.  I haven't been able to convince myself that the electric would be safe.  This is really discouraging.  I am so glad it came up.

If you purchased the common fiberglass panel "pig blankets" they should be perfectly safe... I would mount them on the walls around the peas roosting area, should provide a nice cozy area for them...

http://www.qcsupply.com/250222-stanfield-heat-mat-24-36.html

I have several of these and although I have never used them for birds I have used them for reptiles and in dog houses covered in newspaper, buried in wood chips, hay you name it never had an issue over the decades of use, many of mine date back to being purchased in the early 90s so they are 20+ years old and still working fine... They are designed to only get about +35°F over the ambient temp... So during the winter they might get to about 50°F or so, nothing dangerous... Even if you left it on all summer it would never get hot enough to pose a fire risk...

But, as always anything electric has some risk to it, but in this case it's minimal...

FYI on a silly note, I even used one as an 'egg pre-warmer' this season when I got in a large shipment of eggs and didn't want to drop the incubator temps since other eggs were in there... I put the pig blanket on the floor, put the eggs on a baking rack so they were slightly elevated, and covered it with a cardboard box and presto since the house with AC was at about 70° it should have given me about a perfect 100° out, but of course I monitored it with a thermometer under the box and it was holding at 95° in there, perfect for my application...

 

[Trefoil]

Well, again, I think it would depend on the design. The radiant heating discussed in Craig Hopkins' article, which operates by heated water passing through pipes under the floor, works really well, never gets too hot, and is really safe, as far as I know.

I think there are other systems that work similarly with electric cable laid under the floor, with tile (I dunno what else, would have to check) on top. I think those are pretty safe too. The way they are designed, they never get too hot to walk on with bare human feet.

But lots of things are called "radiant heaters" -- including half the space heaters sold at WalMart -- and those small, not attached to anything, stick up in the air and make lots of heat heaters would be incredibly dangerous in a coop or barn, seems like.

Can you show us what you bought for the pigs?

I can give you a link to it; http://www.amazon.com/Panel-Convect...TF8&qid=1412120521&sr=8-2&keywords=econo+heat

 

[MeepBeep]

I can give you a link to it;  http://www.amazon.com/Panel-Convection-Heater-Programmable-Thermostat/dp/B00DWHUWN8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1412120521&sr=8-2&keywords=econo+heat

I have one of those on the wall in my downstairs bathroom, no thermostat on mine I either run it full on or off, they are real safe, even full on they are only moderately 'hot' to the touch, nothing that will burn you like many other heaters, but probably too hot to stay in contact with for any length of time... Either way pretty much no risk of fire as they do not get anywhere near hot enough for that... They are basically like slow cookers, nothing fast but they will slowly heat up the area...

 

[Trefoil]

Would they be safe to put on a wall in the pea shed?