Homemade Bator - What watt buld to use?

[Forest]

I just completed making a homemade bator, i used a PID temp controller and have it less than 1 degree shift using 2 40 watt appliance bulbs. Is that too much or should they be less wattage?

 

[pdsavage]

Guess it depends how big the bator is....

 

[speckledhen]

I have two homemade bators (check the link in my sig line) and in both, we use one 60 watt bulb. Is yours larger than those?

 

[Forest]

Oh, ya i guess that is important. It is a plastic igloo cooler, approx 30" long by 16 " wide. It isnt a very large one.

 

[l'uccello]

I am by no means an expert, but we built an incubator with inside dimensions of about 16" x 14" that is heated with two 40w bulbs and it works very well.

I would imagine the proximity of the lights to the eggs might play a part though. Our lights are high in the box and separated from the eggs by a board on which their sockets are mounted. We do have a fan too. You could definitely go with lower wattage or just one bulb, but I like the idea of having lots of heat available when they come on because the cycle is shorter, and I like the idea of two bulbs (in parallel, of course) because you still have heat if one fails.