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Protecting One's Assets

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steampunkpete:
I only have a work area at the end of brick built garage, which means in winter it gets cold and damp.

To protect my mini-lathe from the dreaded rust I cam up with a cunning plan - build a heated greenhouse for it.

I had a few lengths of aluminum tube left over from a fruit-cage build, and these were used to create a frame just big enough to drop over the top. A space blanket from Milletts folded over the top (looks just like an early Christmas present) gives a cheap heat retaining skin.

But how to provide some heat? The smallest greenhouse heater that I could find was 40 Watts, and that would be more than necessary for rust warding off and cost a pretty penny to run. The cunning bit was to wire two 40 Watt heaters in series. Wiring the two in series meant that each would only consume 10 watts, and I could use one to protect my lathe and one to protect the pillar-drill. A 10 Watt heater is only warm to the touch, so no fear of damage.

The two heaters are wired together in a junction-box with suitable glands and plug into a mains supply with the usual protections. Those few Watts are just enough to keep the greenhouse a couple of degrees above the surroundings. Voila.

awemawson:
An incandescent light bulb always used to be the heater of choice for keeping machine tools above the dewpoint. Best built into the base assembly and available in a huge range of wattages

nrml:
Instead of insulated covers and a heater, why don't you just use a dehumidifier to reduce the relative humidity in the enclosed space? That combined with a humidistat would probably be more effective, consume less electricity and be less of a fire hazard than a heater.

awemawson:
Dehumidifiers don't work very well in cold weather, I've had to use a fan heater in the past to get mine started. Once it starts drawing moisture however the motor in the dehumidifier keeps the temperature up. Get pricey on running costs. Mine's a big commercial unit that I run through a humidistat when I use it.

steampunkpete:
Thanks for the comments chaps:

I thought about light bulbs, but incandescent bulbs are increasingly difficult to get, are relatively fragile and designed to produce light. To minimise power consumption I wanted to use all the power consumed to be manifest as heat.

Dehumidifiers: I didn't consider this idea I must admit. I've had a look around for dehumidifier specs. I can't find one that uses as little as 20 Watts. The lowest consumption seems to be about 60 Watts, but this is for a small unit that I couldn't be certain would cope with my (very cold) detached garage. If it did, it would have been a solution that was three times the purchase cost and at least three times the running cost of the greenhouse-heater-in-a-box.

If my warm-box doesn't work the dehumidifier idea certainly is worth another visit at least.

The greenhouse heaters are designed to the appropriate regulations (one hopes!) and have been de-rated by me by a factor of four. They are thus even less likely to fail. We've used the same design in our potting-shed / greenhouse for years and is hasn't burned down yet!  The surface temperature of the heaters is such that they are just warm to the touch; they can be comfortably be tightly gripped in the hand. There is no appreciable fire hazard here.

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