weyfirstreef
Non-member
I have a fish room in my cold basement, I isolate this area in the winter and heat it instead of the water in the tanks, well up till now. It has always been a little bit of guess work and a fair amount of fluctuation in temp. On a real cold day if someone left the cellar door open ( laundry in same area) the heat would rush upstairs the system temp would drop and the 2100 watts of electric backup heaters would try to maintain temp. Close the door the thermostat would be satisfied fairly quickly but the water would have already cooled to much, the fluctuations on real cold series of days could be a few degrees. No Bien. I got a Reef Keeper, a 10 dollar relay and 100 feet of left over pex tubing. I but the relay in the control cabinet for my furnace, ran an extension cord to an outlet on the RKE. Then disconnected my t stat for that zone and connected two points to the relay. Now when the RKE says the tank is to cold the relay trips the furnace and heats the room. To take it One step further I connected the left over pex to the zone and put it in a 200 gallon reservoir that is part of the system, effectively turning it into a water heater controlled by aquarium temp. Long term I only want to heat the water directly hut I did not have enough tubing large enough for that to work 100 percent right now. But controlling the room heat with the tank water temp has stayed within .1 degree so far. It cost a ten foot extension cord and a ten dollar relay.
