Lower wattage red heat lamps

[Akane]

Only downside to a thermostat is your bulb will have a much shorter lifespan being flicked on and off all the time. I wouldn't trust one for more than 2 or 3 batches of chicks before replacing or you risk it blowing out. I have heard of several people having that problem with using such a system in homemade incubators heated by light bulbs. Aquarium heaters are made to flip on and off, lightbulbs aren't.

 

[PurpleChicken]

There is a difference between a heat lamp and a flood. I prefer to use
heat lamps on a dimmer.

I keep on hand:

50, 65 & 75 watt small red heat lamps (Reptile bulbs from pet store)

125 & 250 watt large sized red heat lamp (Lowes or HD)

60 & 125 white heat lamps (Found at Lowes once - wish I could find again)

I just pick the bulb for the brooder I'm using, number of chicks, and ambient temp.

I use an infrared gun to monitor temps and a rheostat(fancy dimmer) to adjust.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Incandescent light bulbs don't have a life cycle like flourescents do. It shouldn't
matter how often you turn them on and off.

I still wouldn't use a thermostat. Brooder lights are radiant heat sources. Turning
them on and off will vary the brooder temps too much and the light cycling may
have unknown effects on the chicks.

 

[Jarhead]

I use a supplemental visible light source (overhead lights) for the chicks, so the light cycle is constant and not effected by the infrared bulb. Once the overhead lights are turned off at night the chicks lay down and go to sleep, we have sat there and watched them, they don't blink when the infrared cycles on or off. This particular thermostat I recommended can be used with any heating source, like the ceramic bulbs, etc. It is not just for aquarium use, it was designed to control heaters in terrariums (which is basically a brooder for reptiles) as well. I use a 250 watt shatterproof infrared bulb on the thermostat, this one is very accurate the brooder temp never varies more than 1/2 a degree in my brooder. The chicks seem to be very happy, running all over the brooder.

 

[BawkinOnTheBench]

Quote:
Thanks for the suggestion, Bodyflight! I had the 250 heat lamps. I never even put the chicks under the red - they would've cooked for sure. I was using the white - and even then it was a struggle to get the temp down to 89 or so. I picked up a 100 watt red flood light from Home Depot today, and for the first time in their 12 days they are resting comfortably in red light. And I've got plenty of room to move the light up. I wouldn't have thought of a floodlight if not for this post!