Will this work with Flexwatt??

Hi Everyone,
We are building an adult rack and was wondering if this would work. I have made a diagram to you can see what I mean. I am using 11" FlexWatt and want "belly heat" but would prefer not to have to run it down the entire length of the shelf. Plus the 11" is too wide as it would heat the whole bottom of the bin if I did run it the length of the shelf. We are building it with 40 qt. Sterlite bins and the bins will run the long way on the shelf so I would just like to heat one end of the shelf. Or would it be just as effective if I were to make the rack "back heat". I would use less FlexWatt with "Back Heat" but would it be as efficient as "belly heat". Any reply would be greatly appreciated.
Jay & PJ

That is the way I have my flex wired up. Basically you have them wired in series insted of parallel (what the directions tell you to wire them as).

Wiring this way, It will be easier to tell where a problem is if there is one. Say that your third piece of tape from the plug is bad, the ones up to that point will still work, but the ones afterwards won't.

Good luck.

I just set up my own rack and it's got 11" flexwatt as backheat. 48" wide and 72" tall, and I'm using 2 strips and running them right down the center of each tub (28qt). It works just as well if using the smaller tubs because it covers half of those (12qt).

I tried to get some pictures, but it's against the wall and very difficult to see. Imo, back heat works just fine as long as you don't have an open rack like mine currently is, lol. This weekend I'll be 'boxing' it in with plywood or MDF---something along those lines. It's held the temps very well and I've noticed most the the snakes curled up against the back of the tubs.

For the cost factor alone, I'd go with the back heat.

I have 11" FlexWatt running up the back of my rack as well. The rack is enclosed on all sides except the front and it holds the heat pretty well. The only (small) problem with doing it this way is if you have a fairly tall rack the bottom shelves will be slightly cooler and the top shelves will get slightly warmer.

Wish I'd been smart like Joe and put the heat tape in the middle though. Now I have to get more heat tape for two shelves of smaller tubs.

Joe, when you box in your rack, you might want to use peg board to help with full air flow. My rack back is peg board and it doesn't seem to cause problems with keeping the heat up.

All my racks have back heat except one of my hatchling racks (which uses a cheaper water pipe heat cord instead of flexwatt), and they all work just fine. I also second the idea of using pegboard instead of totally enclosed.

D80

pcar is wrong the way you have them wired up is parallel and not series and it will work fine. I have not read any directions for FlexWatt or used FlexWatt. But, what I have seen on how people wired there FlexWatt on different sites they all have them wired in parallel. If pcar has them wired like you are showing then he has them wired parallel.

Sorry pcar for correcting you. It is just my electrical back ground coming to the surface. Pcar if you have any questions PM me with a number and I will call you. Again sorry.

Floyd

Thanks Everyone,
We have decided to go with the "PARALLEL" application (as shown in my spectacular drawing..lol). BTW Thanks Fatman608 - Floyd. We built 2 adult racks and I have wired 1 and it works just fine. I will say it is a little more time consuming this way, because of all the extra wiring and soldering, but was definitely more cost affective then running it the length of the shelves. I will wire the second one tomorrow and put the pegboard on the back then we will post some pics. Thanks for all the great replies.
Jay & PJ

Originally Posted by Fatman608

pcar is wrong the way you have them wired up is parallel and not series and it will work fine. I have not read any directions for FlexWatt or used FlexWatt. But, what I have seen on how people wired there FlexWatt on different sites they all have them wired in parallel. If pcar has them wired like you are showing then he has them wired parallel.

Sorry pcar for correcting you. It is just my electrical back ground coming to the surface. Pcar if you have any questions PM me with a number and I will call you. Again sorry.

Floyd

no worries, thanks for the correction. I guess I looked at the drawing wrong. I also have electrical background and can't believe that I got this wrong. But, I don't mind corrections. I have them wired series on my racks. Looks like this:

Electrically challenged . . . Series in effect makes 'it' one piece of flexwatt, while parallel makes each flexwatt individually hooked up to one outlet?

D80