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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
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Electricity economy with incubators
    #1035077 -

Hey everyone...
I was just wondering a few things about electricity economy with incubator / fruiting chamber setups...
Firstly, is there anything one could add to the water which the aquarium heater is in, to make the water retain heat better? In theory, if you added some liquid with a higher heat capacity (that also doesn't damage the heater) then the heater would be on less, hence saving you money.

Does anyone know easily obtainable liquids that will do this?

Other power saving measures I have thought of are to insulate the terranium with a good blanket or some kind of insulation material.
Also using an energy-saving fluro bulb for a light source.

Any other power-saving suggestions?

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Re: Electricity economy with incubators [Re: Peace_Patrol]
    #1035229 -

>In theory, if you added some liquid with a higher heat capacity (that also doesn't
>damage the heater) then the heater would be on less, hence saving you money.

Not even in theory.
Btw, water has one of the highest (if not THE highest) heat capacitance of all substances.

>Other power saving measures I have thought of are to insulate the terranium
>with a good blanket or some kind of insulation material.

This is true.
*terrarium

>Also using an energy-saving fluro bulb for a light source.

Also true.


--------------------
Grow Mushrooms from Spores - PF-Tek for Simple Minds

Edited by Anno (11/08/02 06:30 AM)

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Re: Electricity economy with incubators [Re: Anno]
    #1035671 -

if you had a liquid with a higher heat capacity it would take longer to heat it in the first place. alcohol has a lower heat capacity than water. it will chill faster in the freezer but it will also heat up faster when taken out. my heater costs less than 1 cent to run all day. electricity is cheap, you are talking about 10's of watts (aquairum heaters are mostly off). leave that worrying until you start growing MJ!

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Re: Electricity economy with incubators [Re: Anno]
    #1037285 -

Thanks for input guys...
Yeah, I heard that water does have a pretty high heat capacity, so I guess adding anything else would probably reduce that.
Oh, another thing I have found, if you have a lot of jars in the incubator at once, then it retains heat a lot better than if there is just a few. This is just common sense.
I wasn't sure about how much aquarium heaters cost to run...I have a 250w and a 300w so I guess they are not on much.

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Re: Electricity economy with incubators [Re: Peace_Patrol]
    #1037337 -

Focus on better insulation to prevent heat loss. Styrofoam is a great heat insulator and will hold in the heat much better than a rubbermaid container. You can always wrap the inside of your container with aluminum foil (reflective mylar would be better, it doesn't conduct electricity in case you short something out) to help even more. If the bottom of your container is flat, you can make some small legs to get it up off the table/floor reducing thermal transfer into the table/floor. If you are having extreme problems, nest your incubator inside another slightly larger container, again, using small legs to keep the bottoms from touching.


--------------------
Just another spore in the wind.

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Re: Electricity economy with incubators [Re: Seuss]
    #1038256 -

Thanks, good idea.
A friend of mine wrapped his incubator in 'Pink Batts' (Ceiling insulation for houses) and then taped that down, then wrapped fabric around that to cover up all the pink stuff (it can cause allergy / skin irritation or something). I think I might try that too, it seems to work good at keeping the heat in!

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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
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