Help for the Cat shelter

There are a few kits available designed for controlling toaster ovens, turning them into programmable reflow ovens for soldering of surface mount components. They use triacs to control a resistive heating element. I would think they could be modified for this task as the wattage is about the same although the tempertures are much higher in the small, convection ovens. The price is within your budget.

Here's another but it's more money and less amenable to modification.

Probably not what you want to hear but most forced air electric space heaters come with thermostats built in and distribute the heat better than oil-filled because at least some of it spends its time on the ground rather than just floating up to the top of the room.

Are the cats in cages or do they run freely about the structures? If the latter, you'd have to "cage" any sort of heating mechanism to prevent the cats from chewing on them. I'd feel much better, in the long run, using equipment with built-in thermostats rather than add-on because if anything goes wrong with the add-on technology, you'll foot the blame.

I'm also betting that those outbuildings could stand more insulation to prevent heat dollars from radiating into space.

-- Bobby G.

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Hi Jim,

If you can use some of my Winland thermostats let me know how many you need. They're yours at my cost. I'll take care of the shipping as well.

"Jim Baber" wrote in ...

There a tons of thermostats for external heaters. Here are a few"

Sounds like your group chose the least efficient method to do this. Those heaters will create a warm column that moves the heat to the ceiling or requires fans to distribute the heat which will create a wind chill effect that hurts the heating effort.

If you had it to do over, I would recommend what a friend of mine did (large garage where he works on things in the winter). He had tubes embedded in the concrete floor and connects a propane powered water heater to the lines.

You might be able to talk a contractor or home repair dealer into donating the tubing like people use for in floor use and embed it in a gout layout under the cat cage area. That way all the heat heads for the cats first. and the average temperature can be lower.

An alternative would be to use the electric mats sold for floor heating with something over them so that dirt and water from the cats doesn't land directly on the heater.

Large heated platforms made from 4x8 plywood and foam insulation could be made for the cats to lay on. Warm air/water could be circulated under the platform to keep it warm for the cats to lay on. Would make an interesting project for grade school science class projects or competetion to design one costing less than $50 in parts.

I did a google search:

I'm sure other hits will work as well, but the greenhouse community seems to be a good place for cheap/ready made solutions.

The idea of making a platform/box to catch some of the air seems to have merit. 50-100 cats on a 4x8 piece of plywood sounds like a real fun time. ;)

You will find that the cats eat more in the colder weather, since they are burning calories to stay warm. We've been keeping the house in the

good luck.

so what you are saying, is that cats provide heat, self-regulated according to environmental conditions...

Nice! No thermostat needed!

sdb

heh... yup... and you and every other "warm blooded" mammal on the planet. But that doesn't mean that the cats cannot get hypothermia, just like you, and every other mammal on the planet. (did i get my double negatives right? :)

Some folks say (perhaps jokingly) that drinking cold beverages will burn more calories for the same reason.

It's the new freezing cold diet... yes, just lower the temperature of your enviroment and *feel* those calories burning away. ;)