Heaters

[rfeiller]

Land in the dry lake beds is cheap kinda like the Everglades use to be.

[rfeiller]

badflash,
talked to the local nv authorites; a new ruling came down, no tilapia aquaculture in nevada.

[krfoerster]

Oklahoma is free. You can almost burn tires in your front yard here. Come check it out.

[keith_r]

back on topic regarding heaters.. has anyone used a heating blanket under a kiddie pool? i'm thinking of using an 8' snapset pool, 18" deep (for cray's)

[urbanfarmer]

back on topic regarding heaters.. has anyone used a heating blanket under a kiddie pool? i'm thinking of using an 8' snapset pool, 18" deep (for cray's)

Make use it's waterproof or you could have an unforeseen accident...

[badflash]

Bad Idea, but a waterbed heater works great. Real cheap on ebay. 300 watts for around $15.

[keith_r]

Bad Idea, but a waterbed heater works great. Real cheap on ebay. 300 watts for around $15.

yeah, that's what i meant.. thanks!

[badflash]

Just remember to put some cushioning between the floor and the heater. I used styro sheets. Keep the control units off the floor so they don't short out. 2 300 watt heaters will be enough if you insulate the walls and float some insulation on the top. Keep the water level at 12" so the crays don't escape.

[RickS]

Hi everybody,

I am new to this but I have been doing a lot of research and experimentation. I have looked a many heaters, and I like the 3-5 kw per gallon. Also the other reccomendation I appreciate is it is better to use several small heaters rather than one large one. I have a 900 gallon tank, the minimum reccomended amount was 3,000 kw. But they reccomended six 500 kw heaters on one controller rather than one large heater. The rationale was that should a heater fail I would still have five heaters functioning unti I replaced the failed unit.

The other thing I have been researching and experimenting with is a wood fired snorkel stove. The firebox sets in the water heating directly, and in the greenhouse you also get heat from the top of the stove and chimney heating the air. I am going to use this in conjunction with the electric heaters to offset electric costs. I am building my fist stove out of mild steel, then having it powder coated to cut down on corrosion. These stoves are currently used to heat wood hot tubs. The nice thing about this stove is that it is an open system. Whereas a closed system (boiler) has pressure issues. Temperature control is more difficult, but as an augment to the electric heaters, a good way to cut down on electric consumption. You can buy the stove for about $7-900.00. I have priced my material for the stove and can build it for about $100.00. I have a complete wood and metal working shop so I have access to all the equipment. Should it work out as planned, I will market the stove for about $300.00 plus shipping.

[davidstcldfl]

Cool....or should I say 'warm' ...
I looked at the snorkels......nice design, but like you said....a little pricey. Of course once a guy started paying for electric heat, that would / will add up fast too.....$$$$

Looking forward to what you come up with..