Another Rack guestion!!

[softballstud_1099]

Hey guys I am fixing to have our shop teacher build me a rack system for my leos. My guestion is: what is the best way to run heat tape on the racks. Do I just run it continously or do I set it up in parrells or do I just do each rack seperatly? Any comments would be helpful. Sorry the spelling is bad. Was in a hurry. Pics would be great also. I will post pics as soon as it is completed.

 

[Gregg M]

You can run it continuously or you can do each one separately and daisy chain it... I would just run one continuous length of heat tape...

 

[Leopard.Geckerz]

I'd say continuous. Make sure you get a thermostat to control the temps

 

[softballstud_1099]

Where can I get a good thermostat that is fairly cheap?

 

[LeapinLizards]

Good and cheap are on different sides of the thermostat spectrum! The cheapest I would go for a quality thermostat is a Herpstat of Helix...the base models I believe are under $150. I've heard really good things about Johnson's too, but I'm unsure how expensive they are.

I ran all my heat tape separately on the rows, and daisy chained it, but ran them through rocker switches so I can turn each individual row on and off as I please, without the whole rack running at all times, when I'm just using a few rows.

 

[softballstud_1099]

Heather,

Could you post a pic of how you daisy chained it? I am a school teacher not an Electrition. LOL

 

[LeapinLizards]

Well it's rather confusing to look at! Only because we didn't just SIMPLY daisy chain it, they are all run through the rocker switches. I can try...

 

[softballstud_1099]

Thanks. Any thing will help. If any others want to send pics that would be great. I will post my pics as soon as it gets built.

 

[LeapinLizards]

Oook...here's what I was able to get. The wiring is coming from the heat tape on the right, to the switches on the left, then down to the next level of heat tape.

Since you wouldn't be using switches, it would be straight from each level to the next...very easy!

 

[LeapinLizards]

Oh, and the spot I'm touching in the picture is where we connected two different pieces of wiring. The only reason we did that was so we didn't have to deconstruct the whole thing if the individual strip of heat tape was to malfunction. It would be a quick replacement.

 

[softballstud_1099]

Heather,

Thank you for your info. This will really help.

 

[LeapinLizards]

Not a problem at all. I'll help any way I can!

 

[softballstud_1099]

Another rack system

Here is a pic of what our shop teacher and his students are going to build me.

 

[softballstud_1099]

Ok guys, our shop teacher finished my rack and it looks great. I have heat tape coming on monday and as soon as I get it home I will take some pics and post them for all to see.