Moneymaker...With a name like that you must be a Tomato grower ...First thanks for your post ...Now did you use your cable on a soil bed/raised bed because I am not....I am using stainless steel tubs for a "final" transplant IE I do not want the warmer cable for seeds etc ..I have the equipment for that....I need the warmer cable for initially an experiment in my living room where I have plans for up to 4 freezer "SHELLS "with 4 X 450mm Diameter Stainless steel in each ...Its the soil in these drums that I want to heat to round 20 degrees celcius or 70 degrees F and hold it there.....My plants are now to the stage that they require transplanting into their final resting place so I have to get this done as soon as possible ...I have lights etc that will compensate nearly for daylight...They go from 2am til 10am every day ....I really have the most beautiful plants grown from cuttings ..better than I have ever had...
Now back to the stainless steel drums ..I resume you can image a 450mm drum full of soil ...They will be pretty heavy so this is my plan ...I am going to get warmer cable and wind a few coils inside the drum ..put soil in the drum so the plant itself will be planted in the middle of the coil......But what if I want to move a drum (for whatever reason) ..If I have one long warming cable across the four drums I could get a problem and to me its not worth the risk ..So my idea is to purchase 100metres of warmer cable that can be cut ...Now hopefully I will find out soon if this is possible.I will Splice a short non warming cable onto the warming cable ..the non warming cable will have the power plug and thermostat on it..I estimate I could need 4 -5 loops inside the drum..(the less the better) this equates to aprox 6 metres so I cut the warming cable (I then have 94 metres) ....but instead of insulating the end of the initial 6 metre cable I splice a small length of non warming cable onto and on the end of that I attach a female socket ........I then cut more 6 metre cables from the 94 metres and I splice a short non warming cable with a male socket on it to the start of these cables and do the same to the other ends except I would put a male socket.....
Doing it this way .. each drum can be disconnected from the "circuit" at any time just by unplugging its warmer cable ....Now I will probably have a circuit for each freezer .....the end cable could be insulated off or I could just have the female socket on it incase I wanted to add another freezer to the "circuit"...
Now the warming cables will be spliced and connected out of the drum in a safe position NO connectors will be in the soil only warming cable and there will be allowances for this on the length used to ensure the warming cable has aprox 20 cm at each end clear of the drum..
Thats my plan but I am not an electrician so I had hoped to see one today but they are still celebrating "Queens Birthday " weekend and is not returning to work til tomorrow .....I will explain my plan to him and see if he sees any flaws or dangers in it....
In the meantime I am going to try a freezer with 2 ceramic heat bulbs under the Drums heating the air...with an aluminium cover (with holes in it for the drums to go through) blocking off any air outlet at the top ...
Down here at the bottom of NZ in my short time at growing Tomatoes one is wasting ones time without some type of soil warming .....Now hopefully by August I will not only have Tomatoes to eat but I will be growing the laterals from my plants to plant out in my greenhouse ....If my warmer cable system has been successful inside I will do something similar in the greenhouse because "whens Summer" ..well going by this year it missed us if you get what i mean ...so one has to have insurance of this...or else tomato growing is just a waste of time and money....
Cheers Ron
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