Pseudo Brooder Heater 'Plate'

[melroseladi]

Have you tested this for outdoor use yet? I am wondering if this design would still work outside in cooler ambient temps.

Penny

 

[Beekissed]

Have you tested this for outdoor use yet? I am wondering if this design would still work outside in cooler ambient temps.

Penny

This lady seems to think so..and I'll be testing out the heating pad brooder this weekend in 40* temps and snow this weekend as well:

 

[aart]

Have you tested this for outdoor use yet? I am wondering if this design would still work outside in cooler ambient temps.

Penny

I have not, but plan to put the whole brooder into the garage in about 3 weeks as I want to play with hardening them off faster than the 5 degree a week concept.

I am doing some temperature readings today in preparation for reducing the heat output.

Will post my findings in a day or two.

 

[aart]

This lady seems to think so..and I'll be testing out the heating pad brooder this weekend in 40* temps and snow this weekend as well:

I wonder what the ambient temps are in that situ? It is in a greenhouse.

 

[Beekissed]

I wonder what the ambient temps are in that situ? It is in a greenhouse.

I'll let you know....my coop is a hoop house much like this one and the brooder is going to be on the sunny side. The lady mentioned 40* temps outside and unless there is full sun on that house they won't be too far off from that inside the house as well. Mine varies only a little from outside temps.

 

[aart]

I'll let you know....my coop is a hoop house much like this one and the brooder is going to be on the sunny side. The lady mentioned 40* temps outside and unless there is full sun on that house they won't be too far off from that inside the house as well. Mine varies only a little from outside temps.

Cool! Hope you start a new thread showing your concept and results.

 

[Beekissed]

Cool! Hope you start a new thread showing your concept and results.

Will most likely just include it in the incubator thread.

 

[RoseMarie1]

GOOD IDEA! I really like this idea!

 

[aart]

Finding the heating pad hard to tweak the temps on using the dimmer extension cord......still playing with it, takes the thermometers I'm using a long time to register/stabilize.

It got a little cool late yesterday I think....there was some squawking.

 

[aart]

I've found that it is hard to accurately measure the temps of the heater.
I put a remote thermometer/humidity sensor underneath touching the rack and one directly above it on top of the towel.
Using a dimmer extension cord and a kill-a-watt device, here are my findings, all temps are approximate, ambient room temp is about 65:
The variation of temps is I think the difficulty of getting the sensor in the same place.

under top
40 watts 107-110 96
24.5 watts 104-109 97
20 watts 93-98 91
16.5 watts 92 87


The sand floor of the brooder under the rack, about 2-3 inches down, is about 15 degrees cooler than at the rack.
I've left it at about 20 watts and sometimes they stay underneath but they've started to cuddle on top of the towel..

Everyone seems happy..... eating, drinking, pooping and running around......might bump it up a bit to see if their activity level changes.

Introducing a couple 2 week old chicks today....... so that should be interesting!