I'm now using my 24x24 barn as a fermenting room. It's well insulated so I figure I should be able to keep it at temp easy enough.
So I put and electric space heater out there and after some playing around with the built in temp control I got the barn to hold steady at 60*. Well I wanted better control so I bought a Ranco 2 stage thermostat. It's rated for 120v at 16 amps. My heater is 12.5 amps. I figured this would be great.
After setting up the Ranco I had some problems with it. I had the stage one for cooling and stage two for heat. Heater was plugged into stage 2. Heat was on but once it hit temp and shut off it would not come back on. I found this out two days later and the barn was at 45*. I used some propane heat to help get it back up and I tried it again. Next day it was cold again.
I then switched it to stage one and set it to heat. That fixed the problem and all was good.
I set up another heater and a fan on the other side of the barn. This heater is on low and runs all the time as does the fan. The main heater was being triggered by the Ranco.
This past Saturday I was out there and it was all good. But working hard to hold the 60* I wanted.
It's Tuesday night now and I step out to see how it's doing and when I walked in I got hit in the face with the smell of electrical burn. You know that smell right?
The fan and low heater are running, check, the main heater is not. I look at the Ranco and it's on and showing that it was 58*. Ok the heater should be on but it's not. I unplug the heater and plug it into the wall. It's fires right up. Ha, it's the Ranco.
When I removed the Ranco from the wall I see the problem.
I damn near burned down my barn. That would have been a huge loss. I got so lucky that it burned it's self out without igniting the wall.
On a side note. The heater is now just plunged into the wall and it's not working hard at all to keep the temp.
I don't think these Ranco controls are built to run space heaters.
So I put and electric space heater out there and after some playing around with the built in temp control I got the barn to hold steady at 60*. Well I wanted better control so I bought a Ranco 2 stage thermostat. It's rated for 120v at 16 amps. My heater is 12.5 amps. I figured this would be great.
After setting up the Ranco I had some problems with it. I had the stage one for cooling and stage two for heat. Heater was plugged into stage 2. Heat was on but once it hit temp and shut off it would not come back on. I found this out two days later and the barn was at 45*. I used some propane heat to help get it back up and I tried it again. Next day it was cold again.
I then switched it to stage one and set it to heat. That fixed the problem and all was good.
I set up another heater and a fan on the other side of the barn. This heater is on low and runs all the time as does the fan. The main heater was being triggered by the Ranco.
This past Saturday I was out there and it was all good. But working hard to hold the 60* I wanted.
It's Tuesday night now and I step out to see how it's doing and when I walked in I got hit in the face with the smell of electrical burn. You know that smell right?
The fan and low heater are running, check, the main heater is not. I look at the Ranco and it's on and showing that it was 58*. Ok the heater should be on but it's not. I unplug the heater and plug it into the wall. It's fires right up. Ha, it's the Ranco.
When I removed the Ranco from the wall I see the problem.
I damn near burned down my barn. That would have been a huge loss. I got so lucky that it burned it's self out without igniting the wall.
On a side note. The heater is now just plunged into the wall and it's not working hard at all to keep the temp.
I don't think these Ranco controls are built to run space heaters.
