Wiring an 18 level rack

Wiring an 18 level rack

Postby Unforgiven » Fri May 24, 2013 11:22 am

Hi guys, just trying to work out how much cable I need. I intend to get the 6.6m 22w cables. The rack I am building consists of 18 levels each level 1m long holding mostly 5l and 4.5l tubs. Using the 6.6m 22w cable would one line be sufficient heating per level or 2? Or possibly even 3? I intend to make grooves in the wood to run the cables in as most of the tubs will be lidless and therefor require 100% snug fit.

@2 lines per level I would need approximately 6 cables to heat the entire thing. Would it be okay to hook each cable up to one plug or should each cable have its own plug?
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Re: Wiring an 18 level rack

Postby Davidc » Fri May 24, 2013 12:28 pm

You can safely draw up to 15 amp through a normal plug. That is around 3450 watts. Wired in parallel as you should for this application just add the watts up of all the cables and if it is below 3400 you will be gtg.
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Re: Wiring an 18 level rack

Postby Unforgiven » Fri May 24, 2013 12:42 pm

Davidc wrote:You can safely draw up to 15 amp through a normal plug. That is around 3450 watts. Wired in parallel as you should for this application just add the watts up of all the cables and if it is below 3400 you will be gtg.


I knew I should have paid more attention in science class, can;t remember it at all right now. Looks like some googling and conversions are in order
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Re: Wiring an 18 level rack

Postby Primogen » Fri May 24, 2013 12:46 pm

I think you're going to need to have at least 3 lines per level on 22watt cable to get a hotspot of up to 30 degrees in a tub.
I recently had to make a mini rack also using 5 liter tubs for some hatchlings and used only 2 lines (yellow cable 20w) and could not get anything higher than 28 degrees.
I ended up using 2 lines of orange 30w cable(4.6m) on a stat to get my temps.
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Re: Wiring an 18 level rack

Postby it_bit_me » Fri May 24, 2013 1:29 pm

It's an very small tub so 30degrees is too high. Why are you guys aiming at those temps?
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Re: Wiring an 18 level rack

Postby Primogen » Fri May 24, 2013 1:39 pm

Its just the hot spot the tubs temps will be from about 27 to 24 ambient gradient, at least mine are now.
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Re: Wiring an 18 level rack

Postby froot » Mon May 27, 2013 8:23 am

Have 3 lines per level and wire each line through a switch to give you options. If your calculations are correct you'd then need 9 cables, that's a total of 198 watts - not a problem for 1 plug.
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Re: Wiring an 18 level rack

Postby Unforgiven » Tue May 28, 2013 4:26 pm

froot wrote:Have 3 lines per level and wire each line through a switch to give you options. If your calculations are correct you'd then need 9 cables, that's a total of 198 watts - not a problem for 1 plug.


I did not think of putting a switch on each individual line. Thanks!

And thanks to everyone else for the replies and electrical lesson
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