wiring a thermostat question

[northdakotaoutfitting.com]

hi im new to posting on this forum but ive used some info off of it in the past, great forum by the way. so i am building a incubator and i had an old freezer laying around and thought it would be a good candidate. well i got the light bulb wired up and the racks in place but dont have a thermostat hooked to it mainly because im not sure how to wire it. i want to use a hot water heater thermostat. id though about just using a dimmer switch but a water heater thermostat seems like a better way to go. i am also going to wire a fan to circulate the air so id need to know how to do that as well.
thanks in advance

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Thermostat goes in series. Basically it should be the black (hot) wire from the outlet to the thermostat, then from the thermostat to the center contact at the base of the bulb, then from the surround of the bulb socket back to the white (neutral) wire at the wall plug. It will work if you get the hot and neutral reversed but it would leave the bulb base live which could in theory be a risk.

The fan assuming it is a 120 volt ac then would go in parralel with that circuit so the thermostat does not shut it off and on.

I know that some people have used hot water thermostats, but I did not find they had a tight enough temperature range to get any stability (at least not the ones I tried).

A dimmer switch on its own is very crude, it might work for a small low mass incubator in a room with very stable outside temperature, but it would be difficult to dial in with a large incubator due to the lag time between any change in heat input and stabilization of the temperature within the whole incubator. You would need to make a slight adjustment on the dimmer then check many hours later to see what the change was, then check it again many hours later to see if it had actually reached a stable temperature, throw in any temperature change in the room and you would be chasing your tail. Also, when you put in any quantity of eggs or open the incubator the temp would take a very long time to come up as the bulb was tuned just to keep enough heat in without adding cold mass or opening the incubator. Changes in venting at lockdown would also throw temp off.

 

[northdakotaoutfitting.com]

so black from the outlet goes to black on the tstat? the wires coming out of my light socket are white and black also. me and wiring dont get along very well mainly because im not to good at figuring this type of stuff out lol i can do the basics but when it come to hooking multiple things together i get lost

 

[Goblnfvr]

Here is a link to a web site [Rush Lane Poultry].
Scroll down to the bottom and there is a schematic on how to wire the thermostat.

This is the one I used when I wired my incubator.

http://www.rushlanepoultry.com/cooler_incubators_page.htm

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

be aware you are working with something that could cause harm or fire.

Main thing is you take the white at the plug (neutral) to the white of the bulb, then the black of the bulb to the thermostat. Polarity likely does not matter at the thermostat, can't see what unit you have, but if there is a silver lug and a black lug I would run the black lug to the hot (Black wire) at the plug and then connect the black wire from the bulb to the thermostat.

Lets just say I have a background in fire investigation and an insurance company finding out a fire was caused by a home build incubator fabbed out of a freezer could make the claim processing difficult.

Be careful! Make sure all connections are secure, well insulated and the bulb is solidly mounted and can't catch anything on fire..

Interesting link, I just about fell out of my chair when I saw that he was actually selling that incubator. Selling an uncertified electrical appliance like that is crazy risky. Someone lights their house on fire with it and yikes they are going to need a team of lawyers.

 

[northdakotaoutfitting.com]

Quote:
thats a good video thanks for the link

what does it mean when its "lock down" for the chicken eggs? is it the last 3days b4 they hatch? thats when you stop turning them right?

 

[northdakotaoutfitting.com]

anyone??>?

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Lockdown is the last 3 days when the humidity is raised an most dont open the incubator.

 

[northdakotaoutfitting.com]

i got my incubator all wired up except for a fan, i have a small computer fan 12v DC 0.18A and i was thinking of using a 12v cell phone charger since it has a converter built in it. do u think i can use one thats 12V 1.5A or do i need a smaller one to run this fan or is there another way to rig it up?

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Here is one I drew up for somebody here a couple of years ago: