Picking the Brains of the Flex-watt gods

[trizzypballr]

I know there are so many flex-watt posts already, so I feel horrible for starting another, but I couldnt find the info I need. I just built a fairly large size rack. Its 8 ft wide, and approx. 7 ft tall. It was made to hold 88 15 qt containers (8 wide * 11 high). I want to make sure with all the flexwatt Ill be using that im not overloading anything. Im using 3" tape and already did the research and found out that 3"= 10 watts per foot. Ill have 11 strips of 8' of tape (80 watts per strip) which comes out to 880 total watts. I will be using a helix to control it, I believe they handle up to 1000 watts correct? my 2 big concerns are I will be running this parallel and I want to make sure that I use thick enough wire to be able to power the whole thing. I also did some research on this and found that 18 guage wire may load up to 8 amps, 16 guage to 10 amps, and 12 to 16 amps. my question is how does that gobbley gook convert into watts so I know which guage wire to use? I am far from an electrician and dont quite understand everything about it The next thing im alittle confused on is how the power is actully regulated, since the tape is able to be wired parallel im guessing that electric is kind of like water, it dispurses evenly across what ever it can? The reason im asking this is because as I stated above the rack is 11 rows high, and I would like to be able to break it down into 3 sections so that I can turn a section off if its not being used, since the helix has 3 outputs. Oviously with 11 rows I can not split the sections evenly, I would have to go 4 rows, 4 rows, 3 rows. Will the temperature still be accurate, or will the 3 row section be hotter because the helix will push the same ammount of power threw each of the 3 outputs? Hopefully someone can help me out with these questions so I can get the flex watt on my rack and start using it tonight

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

OK (roughly) 12 watts/12 volts = 1 amp so 88 watts is 7.33 amps per 11' section.

Each outlet will provide the same amount of power to the strips as long as they are the same length etc, a little note to get even heat, when you set it up, cut on the heat tape without the thermostat and let it get to full heat for an hour or so to "break" it in. Then plug it into the thermostat to regulate the temp.

As long as the strips are the same length they will produce the same amount of heat on each strip, just piggy back the sections you want together for 1 plug in.

I use 15' power cords for mine, not sure what gauge wire it is.

I just got a helix and it works perfect.

 

[trizzypballr]

my question was though, the rack is actully 11 rows... which means it cant be divided 3 ways, or even 2 for that matter. I am not totally filling the rack yet so it would be pointless to run it all right now. So your confirming that if I broke it up into 4 rows, 4 rows, and 3 rows, that the 3 row section would get to much power and be to hot?

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

no, as long as the heat tape is the same length on each row, all rows will heat to the same temp. Now the top may be a degree higher due to heat rising but that's about all the difference you will see.