Thermostat and rack questions.
I'm about to start the construction of a new rack this weekend for my balls. I plan on making it a large multipurpose rack, meaning I want it to conveniently be able to house adult sized rubbermaids (24.6L) and hatchling sized containers. I was going to build it so that one side had 6 adult size, one on top of the other, and the other side had 12 hatchling size. Two columnsof six side by side.
obviously one side is going to be deeper than the other to accomodate longer containers.
To heat this rack I will be using flexwatt and the Helix DBS 1000 Thermostat. I was going to run a strip of 11" flexwatt down the middle of each side. Basically my main question is....Can I wire both strips of heat tape into a single DBS - 1000 thermostat?? I figured that since both heat strips will be running at the exact same temperature, I would save money and space by only using one thermostat and only one rack. Would I wire the two strips in parallel or series?? Would it be better to wire a seperate power cord onto each strip, plug them into a powerbar, then plug the powerbar into the thermostat??
I also had an idea where, I was just going to build one tall rack, and choose appropriate sized rubbermaids, where the hatchling size's width was exactly half of the adult size's width. That way I could build the rack 10 adult size tall, but make the top 4 slots half as deep and put two hatchling containers side by side in each one. that way I would only need one strip of heat tape. I dunno, what do you guys think?? Any help, suggestions, ideas, and photos that you experienced rack builders/users, have would be greatly appreciated. This is kind of a dire situation due to new arrivals coming over the next couple of weeks.
Thanks in advance
Colin
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