Mama Heating Pad in the Brooder (Picture Heavy) - UPDATE

[lazy gardener]

The heating pad I'm using is 50 watt. In the conventional setups I often use 60 or 100 watt bulbs, though I've had to start switching to 125 watt heat lamps because our gov't decided I'd save electric by making it harder to get the regular incandescent bulbs, forcing me to use higher wattage ones (??).

Those are the raw numbers, in practice, I usually use a desktop dimmer on the heat lamps to reduce their wattage, and the heating pads have a thermostat that means it is not running at 50 watts all the time, so the actual electric usage is not easy to compute, but I think it's safe to say the usage is less with the heating pad type brooding.

Would someone with an engineering back ground, please chime in.... Aart??? I've been told that when you use a dimmer switch, you don't actually use less electricity. But, instead, that dimmer switch diverts the wattage away from the bulb. Yes, a dimmer is a great way to fine tune a heat lamp. Also, I'm wondering if the electricty drawn on the heat lamp at a #1 setting is far less than a #6 setting??? I'm a total electricity idiot! No matter the answer to these questions, IMO, the heat pad far exceeds the heat lamp in it's practicality. The one thing I've done is to tape the connection securely with electrical tape, as it doesn't take much tension to cause a disconnect there.

 

[Beekissed]

Not sure if this is where you are going with it, but I put a dimmer relay on this heating pad to see if I could adjust it more finely than the original 6 settings...not smart. The control unit on the HP started smoking....I'm glad I stuck around to watch the progress or I would have ruined the pad altogether and maybe started a house fire.

Don't know how the dimmers work on the heat lamps and not sure why one would want one...just get a lower wattage bulb or use a regular lamp bulb in them for a less intense heat and light.

 

[perilloux5]

Not sure if this is where you are going with it, but I put a dimmer relay on this heating pad to see if I could adjust it more finely than the original 6 settings...not smart. The control unit on the HP started smoking....I'm glad I stuck around to watch the progress or I would have ruined the pad altogether and maybe started a house fire.

Don't know how the dimmers work on the heat lamps and not sure why one would want one...just get a lower wattage bulb or use a regular lamp bulb in them for a less intense heat and light.

No you definitely cannot put a dimmer relay on a digital heating pad. I am assuming that you have the 6 setting sunbeam digital, or at least something similar. As you have already found out it will cause the controls to short out and burn.

 

[dheltzel]

Would someone with an engineering back ground, please chime in.... Aart??? I've been told that when you use a dimmer switch, you don't actually use less electricity. But, instead, that dimmer switch diverts the wattage away from the bulb. Yes, a dimmer is a great way to fine tune a heat lamp. Also, I'm wondering if the electricty drawn on the heat lamp at a #1 setting is far less than a #6 setting??? I'm a total electricity idiot! No matter the answer to these questions, IMO, the heat pad far exceeds the heat lamp in it's practicality. The one thing I've done is to tape the connection securely with electrical tape, as it doesn't take much tension to cause a disconnect there.

Take a look here: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061205182328AAq9TuR

So, the energy saving are there, probably not enough to offset the cost of the dimmer, but I like that I can find tune the heat so the chicks are most comfortable. As for switching out to lower wattage bulbs, I do that some, but all the incandescent bulbs are hard to find and seem to burn our even faster now that they are twice the price. The 125 watt heat lamp bulbs are better made, and with a dimmer, they do work. I like this heat pad idea, but it probably isn't going to replace the first few days of brooding for me. I like being able to see all the chicks "at a glance". Once they are a few days or a week old, I'm more trusting of their ability to make good use of the cave.

 

[Blooie]

Well, since most of the time they are on top of the cave, keeping an eye on them even from day one is pretty simple.

 

[dpenning]

Well, since most of the time they are on top of the cave, keeping an eye on them even from day one is pretty simple.    

I'm glad you said this Blooie! I picked up three chicks Saturday and they stayed on top more than anything. I was thinking about turning it down thinking it is north Texas and they likely don't need it so warm but I left it as it just didn't seem THAT warm even in the cave. Well, we had a cold front come through last night and we got down to 48*. This morning when I went to check on them they were all tucked into the back of the cave. I really don't know how they do it up there where it actually gets cold!

 

[Blooie]

I'm glad you said this Blooie! I picked up three chicks Saturday and they stayed on top more than anything. I was thinking about turning it down thinking it is north Texas and they likely don't need it so warm but I left it as it just didn't seem THAT warm even in the cave. Well, we had a cold front come through last night and we got down to 48*. This morning when I went to check on them they were all tucked into the back of the cave. I really don't know how they do it up there where it actually gets cold.

They adjust, depenning....just as they would under a broody hen. They are some pretty tough little critters, that's for sure. If you think your cave is too warm, go ahead and pop it down one notch and see how they do. They'll tell ya....

 

[aart]

Would someone with an engineering back ground, please chime in.... Aart??? I've been told that when you use a dimmer switch, you don't actually use less electricity. But, instead, that dimmer switch diverts the wattage away from the bulb. Yes, a dimmer is a great way to fine tune a heat lamp. Also, I'm wondering if the electricty drawn on the heat lamp at a #1 setting is far less than a #6 setting??? I'm a total electricity idiot! No matter the answer to these questions, IMO, the heat pad far exceeds the heat lamp in it's practicality. The one thing I've done is to tape the connection securely with electrical tape, as it doesn't take much tension to cause a disconnect there.

All I know about that is that the KillAWat read that less wattage was being used when dimmer was adjusted when using a bulb for heat.....
......but I don't know how to explain why.

Don't know how the dimmers work on the heat lamps and not sure why one would want one...just get a lower wattage bulb or use a regular lamp bulb in them for a less intense heat and light.

Because it's simpler (you like simple, right?

) to adjust the dimmer than changing out the bulb......
........I found it very handy when using a bulb for heat, and I only used white and red 60-100W incandescent bulbs not heat bulbs.

No you definitely cannot put a dimmer relay on a digital heating pad. I am assuming that you have the 6 setting sunbeam digital, or at least something similar. As you have already found out it will cause the controls to short out and burn.

Ditto^^^^

 

[Beekissed]

Actually, it's simpler for me to change out bulbs than drive 20 mi.. to the nearest town and spend money on a dimmer. Now, if you had one on hand, that's simple. Not everyone has a dimmer switch on hand, but most have another light bulb.

 

[lazy gardener]

Bee, the reason I was using a dimmer with my heat lamp was b/c I was having such huge temp swings in my garage where I was brooding the chicks last year. During the day, the temp would get up to 60*, while at night, it would get down to 35*. And they were being brooded in my tractor. Even with it tightly wrapped in blankets, the 2 lamps were hard pressed to provide enough heat to keep them warm, b/c of the height of my tractor walls and the shape of my lamp shields (what ever they are called) making them too deep to put in the tractor, but outside, they didn't kick out enough heat. So they maxed out at night, but needed to be adjusted back during the day. A whole lot of adjusting going on every day... too much to mess with switching out bulbs. Obviously, it was far from optimum, but was the best I had to offer to provide enough space that would be critter proof. Yes, in a stable environment, the most logical solution would be to raise/lower the lamp or switch to a lower wattage bulb.

All that being said, I LOVE my heating pad set up. I can go to bed at night without having to make multiple trips to check on the chicks at night to see if they are getting chilled! They are in the COOP, and toasty warm at 1 week of age. Already on stage one of integration!