Rheostat

[Auskan]

Ok, what exactly is a Rheostat. I've seen a few posts where people have talked about how to build them, but what is it? What does it do? Why might I need one?

[Derrick]

a rheostat controllst the current to your heat source( read dimmer switch). this way you can set your heat pad/panel/bulb so that its providing the right temp for your critter

[Auskan]

Ok. So in other words, I can plug my heat pad (or light even?) into a rheostat and turn it down and it won't provide as much heat? If its currently not providing enough heat when plugged into a regular wall outlet, a rheostat wouldn't make it produce more heat though, would it?

[crazyboy]

A rheostat wouldn't producemore heat...you could get a bigger heting device to produce more heat and then hookthat up to a rheostat it would regulate the emp... but remember it doesn't compensate for losses in room temperature you would have to manually adjust the temperature to get it back to the right temp.
hoe this helped.

[sapphire_moon]

no, You would have to buy a different UTH. A rheostat is like an expensive lamp dimmer. It makes it to where the UTH is not to hot. But you can make a rheostat for heating tape which doesn't have anything on it in the first place. If you have a UTH it is much cheaper to go to wal-mart and buy a 9$ lamp dimmer. I've got 2 of them and they work great.