Heat tape wiring and general heating question

jossh27 · 10-22-16, 07:56 AM

Hi there. To make this as simple as possible- I'm wondering what kind of wiring people use in their racks to join multiple strips of flexwat to run off one thermostat? For example if you have a 4 shelf high rack with 4 separate strips of flewat on each row what kind of wiring do you use to connect each strip of fw to each other? The place I bought the flexwat from doesn't sell additional wiring aside from the wire and clipsets that go from the heat tape to the wall plug

Also i don't have a room dedicated to just my snakes so i can't Jack up ambient temps to the 80's without making life miserable for myself and other family members and Id really like to stay away from che and heatlights... is it possible to keep ambient temps correct with just heat tape?

SWDK · 10-22-16, 05:25 PM

I wire my heat tape for my rack all together in a series with one plug to control them all. If you use the right size heat tape and a good thermostat you won't have any issues with heat control or ambient temps in the tubs. The heat tape doesn't seem to radiate much heat into the room so that should not be of much concern.

jossh27 · 10-23-16, 08:00 PM

What type of wiring did you use to connect each strip of heat tape?

**Minkness** · 10-23-16, 08:21 PM

Do you have some kind of visual for how you wired them all with 1 plug?

SWDK · 10-24-16, 04:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jossh27

What type of wiring did you use to connect each strip of heat tape?

I used 18g lamp wire that you can buy per foot at Home Depot or Lowes. For the side with the plug I bought a cheap 18g extension cord and cut off the end that doesn't plug in.

SWDK · 10-24-16, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minkness

Do you have some kind of visual for how you wired them all with 1 plug?

I don't have any pics of my wiring setup, but it's a pretty simple concept. You wire the incoming just like you would for a single piece of heat tape. Then on the opposite side you get a length of wire, strip both ends and connect the next 2 sections together. Keep repeating until you reach the desired number of sections. The very last section of heat tape only has incoming wires.

chairman · 10-25-16, 05:53 AM

My rack is wired the same way but I wouldn't do it that way again. I would wire my thermostat to have a power strip as its output. Then I'd wire each line of flexwatt with their own plugs. That way you can cut power to a shelf if it is empty. Wired the way mine is I heat all shelves whether they're occupied or not.

SWDK · 10-25-16, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chairman

My rack is wired the same way but I wouldn't do it that way again. I would wire my thermostat to have a power strip as its output. Then I'd wire each line of flexwatt with their own plugs. That way you can cut power to a shelf if it is empty. Wired the way mine is I heat all shelves whether they're occupied or not.

That's how I'm going to wire my next rack for that exact same reason. You never know if you'd have to change out a section and having individual plugs would make things much easier.

jossh27 · 10-25-16, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chairman

My rack is wired the same way but I wouldn't do it that way again. I would wire my thermostat to have a power strip as its output. Then I'd wire each line of flexwatt with their own plugs. That way you can cut power to a shelf if it is empty. Wired the way mine is I heat all shelves whether they're occupied or not.

That's a great idea! So the thermostat will still regulate the temp of each flex wat coming from the powerbar?

chairman · 11-01-16, 01:03 PM

Yes. Only one will be "perfect," the one that has the probe on it, but the rest will be very very close.