: GMTA. Besides giving up heat through the air which circulates
: around them, light bulbs produce radiant heat, which is an
: efficient way to heat objects which they illuminate.

: I've been promoting them for a while, but I never had a decent
: controller, so I just kept them at a safe distance and kept the
: wattage down. 1500 watts kicks out a bit over 5200 BTU, and that
: is about the limit for what I'd put on a single circuit.

: You might be interested in a drawing I did of a warming
: "tent" to keep a kayak warm enough to glass. I think I
: first posted this around the end of 2005, but it is still a
: useful idea. I believe I suggested 4 to 5 bulbs in the 60- to
: 100-watt range, and setting them a couple of feet under the boat
: so they wouldn't scorch things.

: About how much is that controller?

: I've put off building an insulated warming cabinet to preserve my
: paints and glues from freezing in an unheated storage locker. I
: just need to keep things a little over freezing. The plan for
: this year is to heat that cabinet with a 50-watt fish tank
: heater set into a 5 gallon pail of water. The water would get to
: a steady temp of (at most) 70 degrees. If my cabinet stayed that
: warm the unit would shut off. If it got cooler, I'd have a
: constant drain of 50 watts to pay for on my electric bill. About
: a kilowatt a day, or maybe 15 cents. That's a lot cheaper than
: heating the whole unit. I'm not completely happy with the idea,
: though. I'm concerned with the moisture level I might get inside
: a closed cabinet. A constant 40 watt bulb might get too warm,
: but I haven't found any good, and cheap, controllers that might
: go as low as 45 degrees, which is all I need to maintain. There
: are plenty of household thermostats, but those run on 24 volts,
: and a transformer for the thermostat plus a relay for the bulb
: just add to the price. The fishtank heater was only $16, and
: these have good reliability, however, I'm still fishing for more
: ideas on this.

: PGJ

Hi Paul,
I would think that there would be some condensation from that if it's open. If you seal the top and put a condensing coil from the top to the bottom of the tank with an expansion tank at the top, that will eliminate condensation in the cabinet. Bring the condensing coil outside the cabinet for best cooling of condensate.

Mike Savage
South West Cork