View Single Post
  #21   Report Post  
Posted to uk.d-i-y
Dennis@home Dennis@home is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,168
Default How Waterproof are Fish Tank Heaters?

On 09/09/2016 14:13, wrote:


a lighting dimmer on minimum would give around 1.5kW on a 3kW
element. Perhaps you'd recommend tossing in the potatoes first.


A modern dimmer should give a much lower limit than that or it won't
work with LEDS or CF lamps.
These are proportional to the current through rather than needing to be
hot to get any light.


Feeding mains to a nonwaterproofed element in water is not a sane
idea. If you do install it waterproofed, DHW elements routinely split
open near end of life & pass mains through the water.


You feed mains into an immersion heat all the time.
Don't forget the earth.

Oh... and some are copper alloy plated, which is lethal to fish.
Other than those points a great idea! Dennis strikes again.


What have fish got to do with it?
I wouldn't have recommended one if fish were involved.