Need help with WHT in homemade incubator w/ diagram

[Arielle]

I have dial up and cannot view videos. THanks REbel, I looked at your site, even had DH try to see it on his ________ whatever its called LOL; couldn't pull it up. SO I have limited resources here. Sorry.

Fan kept in same position, 40 W candelabra bulb with WHT almost laying on the bulb (metal side).

Flickers on/off; mostly in off

Temperature taken on wire floor (see first diagram);THen progressed to temp taken with an egg carton in place on wire floor(eggs will be held in a carton during incubation).

I'm hoping to fine tune it by covering some of the many ventilation holes.

And I will turn the eggs by lifting one end of the cooler then the other.I'm worried there maybe too much difference between the up and down side. THe old questions are --what is too high and what is too low.


ANy other suggestions welcome!

 

[galanie]

Here is the important text from the web page:

Radiant heat is the actual light wave energy traveling out an hitting other objects an heating them. It looses intensity with the distance it travels but it comes on instantly an goes off just as instantly.

Your incubator is heated mostly by convection. If you let the thermostat be heated that way then the whole incubator has to go up an down 6 degrees with the thermostat. But if you move the thermostat close enough to the light to be heated by the radiant heat then the thermostat will get hot an shut off quicker than the rest of the incubator. When this happens the high temp in the incubator falls. But if you get the thermostat to close then it will cycle to fast an wont let the light stay on long enough to impart enough heat into the incubator to replace the heat the incubator is loosing.

In this video I show you how this works. [ video ]

Though both clips are 30 minutes long they are playing at 1300 times normal speed making each about one minute. The thermostat is set to come on at 99.1*F threw the whole thing an is never adjusted. The thermostat was first set with the flat (metal) side facing the light with enough space between the two to fit four fingers between them. The thermostat cycles from 99.1*F to 105*F. In the second video I moved the thermostat to where I could fit three fingers between them. Then the thermostat cycles between 99.1*F an 100.3*F. Well within the range we need.

Not shown in the video, I later tried to move the thermostat to a distance of two fingers. At that distance the incubator stopped maintaining temp. The light was not on long enough to impart enough heat into the incubator to replace the heat being lost threw the glass walls.

In an incubator with better insulation you may get away with it being closer an get even more stable temps but I had reached my limit for a fish tank. Also if you run a smaller light than the 100 watt bulb I used you will probably need the thermostat to be closer also.

 

[Arielle]

Here is the important text from the web page:

Radiant heat is the actual light wave energy traveling out an hitting other objects an heating them. It looses intensity with the distance it travels but it comes on instantly an goes off just as instantly.

Your incubator is heated mostly by convection. If you let the thermostat be heated that way then the whole incubator has to go up an down 6 degrees with the thermostat. But if you move the thermostat close enough to the light to be heated by the radiant heat then the thermostat will get hot an shut off quicker than the rest of the incubator. When this happens the high temp in the incubator falls. But if you get the thermostat to close then it will cycle to fast an wont let the light stay on long enough to impart enough heat into the incubator to replace the heat the incubator is loosing.

In this video I show you how this works. [ video ]

Though both clips are 30 minutes long they are playing at 1300 times normal speed making each about one minute. The thermostat is set to come on at 99.1*F threw the whole thing an is never adjusted. The thermostat was first set with the flat (metal) side facing the light with enough space between the two to fit four fingers between them. The thermostat cycles from 99.1*F to 105*F. In the second video I moved the thermostat to where I could fit three fingers between them. Then the thermostat cycles between 99.1*F an 100.3*F. Well within the range we need.

Not shown in the video, I later tried to move the thermostat to a distance of two fingers. At that distance the incubator stopped maintaining temp. The light was not on long enough to impart enough heat into the incubator to replace the heat being lost threw the glass walls.

In an incubator with better insulation you may get away with it being closer an get even more stable temps but I had reached my limit for a fish tank. Also if you run a smaller light than the 100 watt bulb I used you will probably need the thermostat to be closer also.

Perfect! THis IS exactly what I experienced thru trial and error( kept a note book) and the canleabra style bulb is MUCH hotter than the energy saver one. I Increased the distance between the bulb and WHT when I switched to the candelabra because it is a slimmer bulb. On for 1 second, off for 8-10 sec.

I filled the 8 quart jars with warm water. Last night the temp read 96 and this morning , eight hours later, it read 96. That's only a 1 degree increase overheat from just the fan. So I covered 4 of 16 holes (25%).


THANK YOU EVERYONE ! ! ! ! !

Suggestions are welcome as I'm sure it will need more tweaking.​

 

[Arielle]

THe temperatures did not change in the incubator. Needed major changes.

Put in a higher wattage, a 60; moved the WHT further away from bulb (now at 3" away) and turned the temp up higher on the WHT.


UPDATE: still fine tuning. RUnning at 98.5-99 degrees.
THe fan is important; the cycling changes to a much slower pace without the fan blowing on the bulb and WHT; When fan is pointed up to ceiling, the cycle is very very slow. THere fore I keep the fan aimed at the bulb and WHT.