On Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 10:05:13 AM UTC-5, Red wrote:
On Jan 30, 10:42Â*pm, nestork wrote:
Red;3005785 Wrote:

They sell heating cables of various lengths to attach to a metal pipe
to prevent freezing. Â*If a heat cable is 6ft long and rated at 40
watts, how hot does the cable feel to the hand if the cable was not
attached to a pipe? Â*IOW, could they be used to keep other things warm
than just a pipe?

Red:

If you're wanting to keep other things warm, just buy a battery blanket
(for keeping a car's battery warm in winter). Â*To control the amount of
heat, make up a simple cord with the dimmer switch for an incandescent
light spliced into that cord. Â*Plug the cord with the dimmer switch in
it into an outlet, and plug the battery blanket into the cord with the
dimmer switch. Â*That way you can control the amount of heat with the
dimmer switch.

I've made my own beer for well over 25 years. Â*Where I live, it can get
chilly enough indoors (in the winter) that it can be hard to get proper
fermentation. Â*I have a variety of "mullion heaters" for refrigerators
that I use to warm up the primary fermenter to get the beer fermenting.
Some mullion heaters are only 15 watts, and I can just plug them in to
an electrical outlet and they produce enough heat for what I need.
Other mullion heaters are 45 watts, and they'll get too hot, and stop
the fermentation. Â*So, for the 45 watt mullion heaters, I simply mount a
dimmer switch for an incandescent light in an electrical box, and splice
that electrical box into a cord between male and female cord ends. Â*That
way, I can simply plug a night light into the female cord end to see if
the dimmer switch is passing electricity or not (cuz you push the dimmer
switch dial it to turn it off). Â*If it is, then I just adjust the dial
to a midway setting, and plug the mullion heater into the female cord
end instead of the night light.

Since mullion heaters were used to warm various parts of fridges to keep
frost from forming in those areas, and nowadays they use the condensor
coil tubing to provide the heat, mullion heaters are no longer widely
available in appliance parts stores. Â*By, you can use a battery blanket
for a car instead, and it should work equally well.

Hope this helps.

--
nestork

Thanks, good answer. That's probably the route I'll take.

under a moble home can the heat pipe cable feel slightly warm near the plug if the tape is on and its cold outside say 30 degrees