Infrared as a heat source?

[crazychick1977]

Hello! I am looking at different DIY incubator ideas and I am planning on building a cabinet style incubator out of mostly reclaimed/re-purposed materials and I have a question. I have a portable infrared sauna that the cloth material is shot- the heating elements and thermostat still work very well though. I was wondering if the infrared heat source would affect the eggs any differently than other types of heat? I know infrared is a deeper penetrating heat than other forms, but if kept at the correct temperature/humidity, would it be just as good as any or would I cook the eggs? Has anyone else tried infrared heat for incubating before?

 

[Dragons4u]

Doesn't infrared heat only heat objects it's aimed at?
I'm not really sure how it would work but would think you'd have to have it aimed at something like a piece of porcelain or something that would radiate the heat into to bator.
very interested to know if anyone has done this before and how you made it work.

 

[crazychick1977]

Well, I haven't tried it yet- but here's what I'm working with. I would be using the heat elements out of my portable sauna which are 3 flat panels that I would put on the walls of the incubator (cabinet type). That would be mimicking the way it operated in the sauna, which was a style that you sat in this box shaped space and all the heat would radiate inward (felt really awesome after a shift of doing too many deep tissue massages!). I'm thinking it would have the same effect in a cabinet on the eggs, I would just have to make sure I kept the temperature at the correct setting so it doesn't cook them.

I might just do the try it and see method. I'm not in a huge hurry, so I've got time to mess with the design. Thanks!

 

[Dragons4u]

Do those elements heat up the air around them, or just heat up the object they are pointed at?

 

[Dragons4u]

Ok, I looked up some stuff, and infrared elements like you have are used in a lot of culture incubators for bacteria and molds.
They would warm the exposed parts of the eggs, but doesn't seem that they would create an equal temperature throughout an incubator, unless they are focused on something else that would radiate the heat back out into the air.
I may misunderstand it completely, but it does indeed look like you can do it with some work and research.

 

[crazychick1977]

Ok, I looked up some stuff, and infrared elements like you have are used in a lot of culture incubators for bacteria and molds.
They would warm the exposed parts of the eggs, but doesn't seem that they would create an equal temperature throughout an incubator, unless they are focused on something else that would radiate the heat back out into the air.
I may misunderstand it completely, but it does indeed look like you can do it with some work and research.

Thanks for all the help! I'm going to give it a try. I used the sauna to treat deep muscle pain and injuries. The way I'm planning to set it up is to have a heat panel on the back wall and both the side walls. It should function the same as when it was a sauna and heat up all the air in the incubator space between the panels with the temperature being controlled with the existing thermostat. I will put an observation window in the front door so I can monitor the eggs and the internal environment.

This is going to take me a while- I'm not very handy, but I'm hoping creativity and determination helps. I'll make sure to document what I do and share the final results here on BYC. Again, thanks for all your help

 

[Dragons4u]

The designs for the bacteria incubators had the infrared elements in both sides the back and the bottom, just an fyi.
Not sure if that makes a difference with eggs.

 

[crazychick1977]

Okay- so step one is done. That's where I salvaged the heating elements and goodies out of my old personal sauna. The panels are just about right for what I'm planning. One thing I hadn't considered before is this- the thermostat works great but I forgot it has an automatic shut off after 60 minutes. That definitely won't work for something that needs to run for approximately 21 days at a time. I either need to figure out if I can disable the timer or just get a different thermostat. I'll need to investigate- especially since I know so little about electrical stuff. Here's the pictures though:


This was what the sauna looked like before I took it apart.


This is two of the three infrared panels (still attached to the sauna housing)


This is the back of one of the panels with a box that all the wires go into (haven't opened that thing up yet

)