>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