: GMTA. Besides giving up heat through the air which circulates
: around them, light bulbs produce radiant heat, which is an
: efficient way to heat objects which they illuminate.

: I've been promoting them for a while, but I never had a decent
: controller, so I just kept them at a safe distance and kept the
: wattage down. 1500 watts kicks out a bit over 5200 BTU, and that
: is about the limit for what I'd put on a single circuit.

: You might be interested in a drawing I did of a warming
: "tent" to keep a kayak warm enough to glass. I think I
: first posted this around the end of 2005, but it is still a
: useful idea. I believe I suggested 4 to 5 bulbs in the 60- to
: 100-watt range, and setting them a couple of feet under the boat
: so they wouldn't scorch things.

: About how much is that controller?

: I've put off building an insulated warming cabinet to preserve my
: paints and glues from freezing in an unheated storage locker. I
: just need to keep things a little over freezing. The plan for
: this year is to heat that cabinet with a 50-watt fish tank
: heater set into a 5 gallon pail of water. The water would get to
: a steady temp of (at most) 70 degrees. If my cabinet stayed that
: warm the unit would shut off. If it got cooler, I'd have a
: constant drain of 50 watts to pay for on my electric bill. About
: a kilowatt a day, or maybe 15 cents. That's a lot cheaper than
: heating the whole unit. I'm not completely happy with the idea,
: though. I'm concerned with the moisture level I might get inside
: a closed cabinet. A constant 40 watt bulb might get too warm,
: but I haven't found any good, and cheap, controllers that might
: go as low as 45 degrees, which is all I need to maintain. There
: are plenty of household thermostats, but those run on 24 volts,
: and a transformer for the thermostat plus a relay for the bulb
: just add to the price. The fishtank heater was only $16, and
: these have good reliability, however, I'm still fishing for more
: ideas on this.

: PGJ

Some interesting ideas here.
Paul, I just checked and found 6 controllers on ebay for $61. Link here.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7609823509#ht_2726wt_926

Best,

Reg