[pingu]

Went out to our local farm shops for some chicken food and whilst there I came across heat lamps...so for the small amout of cash for a 150w red heat bulb and the metal holder (about 20euro's)...I thought I would get a couple ...one for my chickens and one for the ro system cabinate...that in conjunction with a timer and bobs your uncle...

Now giving this some thought perhaps when I build my new cabinate for my 2 ibcs (stacked) and ro system I would have thought that if adaquete insulation is used within the cabinate 2 of these would be sufficient to prevent freezing....what do you think?

perhaps a couple in the van would do the trick also?

Cheers
Dave.

[john tomkins]

I've come to the conclusion that as soon as these freezing temperatures are about I'm gonna disconnect everything that will freeze,and bring them indoors.
I've got quick connectors, and fixings on tank in van so pipes, pump, hosereel etc will all come out in quick time.
Same thing with ro system in garage as that all froze up so not sure if that is wrecked yet as I cant test it as all pipework to it is still solid

[Spruce]

Went out to our local farm shops for some chicken food and whilst there I came across heat lamps...so for the small amout of cash for a 150w red heat bulb and the metal holder (about 20euro's)...I thought I would get a couple ...one for my chickens and one for the ro system cabinate...that in conjunction with a timer and bobs your uncle...

Now giving this some thought perhaps when I build my new cabinate for my 2 ibcs (stacked) and ro system I would have thought that if adaquete insulation is used within the cabinate 2 of these would be sufficient to prevent freezing....what do you think?

perhaps a couple in the van would do the trick also?

Cheers
Dave.

Hi Dave

I have been half interested in infrared heat for many years as we where introduced to a form of it when I worked for Bosch in South Africa. We had large warehouses that got very cold in winter and we were looking to provide some form of heat to make the work place a little more comfortable for our warehouse staff. We settled on a unit that would not heat the enviroment but would heat human bodies that came incontact with it. Unfortunately, the downside was that the contents of the warehouse would still remain freezing but humans only felt the warm effect on the side of them that faced the heater.
So I am not sure if this type of heat would be what you would require to keep your RO's from freezing.
I am now going to build a cabinet like you did and heat it with a tube heater and thermostat.
I use a 100w light bulb under a towel which is wrapped over the RO on the garage wall. This towel channels the warmth toward the RO and so far its survived our North East winters but would doubt it would work with the temperatures most have experienced in the last few weeks.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/heating-and-cooling/infrared-heaters.htm

I thought that this was interesting.

Spruce

[pingu]

Thanks that was very intresting reading....

[ftp]

I have no faith in tube heaters at the moment. Mine has been turned on non stop for three weeks now and the tank has ice, the strainer is cracked and my double lagged pipes were frozen!

[pingu]

I have a small  tube heater in my cabinate and to be honest I found that putting the thermostat on just over 0 in these conditions will not be man enough to prevent freezing...it's now set to 7,5deg and I have a fan heater on a timer set to 40mins on, 40 minutes off...

The cabinate will be re-built shortly so that unless the temps drop to minus 40001 deg it'll be ok.

As for the van I am now putting together a couple of ibcs so that water can be trasnferred from the van tank and ibc's as required...

Rebuild of the pump box so that it removable with the least fuss...all hoses will be drainable with little effort.

But alas  all these 'efforts' do not enable us to acutally work in sub 0 conditions...and this is where I stumble on buying a hot system.

What do you think?

Cheers
Dave.

[ftp]

I'm still not sold on hot myself. If i went for a pro add on system it still wouldn't have recovered the three weeks to a month I have lost even if I could have worked every day. A week of that lost work was the Christmas break anyway. So for me I don't thik I'll be going hot for now.

[Spruce]

We have been fortunate in the North East up to this year as we have only had a few freezing days per year since we have been window cleaners. As we only have a 450GPD RO for the 2 vans with one 1000l IBC tank, the RO is usually filtering water all night, so it doesn't matter how cold it is,  the RO's will not freeze with water flowing through them. But this is the first year we have not been out since the 18th Dec and the RO hasn't worked since then.
I think that the lowest temp we have had this year is -4.5 deg on the North Sea coast, so we haven't had the problems others have had, even some who are just inland a bit.

Years ago we did have a bulb that fits into a normal socket that omits heat but no light. I bought it from a kennel supplier about 15 years ago in Sheffield along with an ali lamp shade /reflector. We used it to heat the outside dogs kennel while we were out at work and that was coupled into a thermostat so it didn't get too hot. Never been able to find one since. 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/150-Watt-Ceramic-Heat-Lamp-Emitter-High-Quality_W0QQitemZ330388014688QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Pet_Supplies_Reptiles_Spiders_Insects?hash=item4ceca90660
 
Spruce

[G Griffin]

Went out to our local farm shops for some chicken food and whilst there I came across heat lamps...so for the small amout of cash for a 150w red heat bulb and the metal holder (about 20euro's)...I thought I would get a couple ...one for my chickens and one for the ro system cabinate...that in conjunction with a timer and bobs your uncle...

Now giving this some thought perhaps when I build my new cabinate for my 2 ibcs (stacked) and ro system I would have thought that if adaquete insulation is used within the cabinate 2 of these would be sufficient to prevent freezing....what do you think?

perhaps a couple in the van would do the trick also?

Cheers
Dave.

I don`t think it will be hot enough to cook a chicken.