>Barry,
>I started with a wax melter made of 3/8 plywood and a double pane glass
>door. This was about 3foot high and 18 inches square. The design was
>fine but we never have enough sun in western New york for me to melt any
> wax. So I converted the same box to a honey heater. I added a platform
>to hold a 5 Gal. pail or a varity of containers. This is about 4 inches
>from the bottom of the box. Under the platform I added two light sockets
> a fan and a thermostat to shutoff at 125 degrees and turn on at 100
>degrees.(I saw somewhere that honey should never be heated over 120
>degrees) It works fine with a couple of 60 watt bulbs. It takes about
>12-18 hours to liquify a 5 gal. pail. I purchased the thermostat from a
>electrical distributor for under $10. The other parts came from a local
>hardware store. I don't know how effective the fan is, but it was a
>small muffin fan I had around the shop. Bigger bulbs would heat faster
>and if I insulated the box it would be more effecienent. However it
>works for a hobby bee keeper.   Maybe these ideas will help.
 
Hello Dale -
 
Thanks for your information. I appreciate all the input from everyone and
it sounds like your setup is closest to what I'm after. It sounds like
everybody has a slightly different approach to heaters but all do the job.
 
I start out with all my honey in five gallon buckets but within a short
time I get everything into quart jars. But it's good planning to be able to
do both. I visited a beekeeper in Michigan last fall and he had a very
small bar style refrigerator in which he mounted a single bulb holder on
the bottom and just had the one shelf to hold quart jars. I failed to take
note of how he wired it up but he said it worked great.
 
I looked up in my Grainger catalog and my HVAC supplier's catalog and I
can't seem to find a thermostat that will shut off in a range of 120=BAF.
Maybe I'm overlooking something. Could you email me with the specifics on
your thermostat? I think the fan idea is a good one as that has been
mentioned by others also.
 
Regards
 
-Barry
 
Barry Birkey
[log in to unmask]
West Chicago, IL.  USA