# Honey Bucket Hot Box



## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Light bulbs are _not _getting scarce. The only thing that is changing is certain sizes/kinds of _incandescent _bulbs are being phased out.

Regardless of the style of bulb, in a closed space/box, a light that consumes 60 watts of electricity *will *generate 60 watts of heat. While CFL lights generate a higher ratio of light for a given wattage than an incandescent, that light is still "heat". In a closed box, the light cannot escape and will be absorbed by the buckets and enclosure walls as heat anyway.

Many blow dryers are 800 watts of more. That _may _be too much heat for a typical heater box. I'd stick with light bulbs.

You could build a wood frame insulated box that has a door that you can wheel a hand truck thru. Get a solid core door from a local _recycled _building materials resale store and cut the height down to your desired size.

Keep in mind that some posts recently have mentioned warming honey inside unused stacked up supers with a lid. It doesn't take a _fancy _box to contain the heat.


Or build a box with no "door" , but an open bottom that can be lifted by your skidsteer (assuming you have a building your skidsteer can enter.) Then stack your buckets and lift the box over the stack with the skidsteer, and plug it in.

.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Those light bulbs could be in the lid, couldn't they be? Or would they best be on the floor of the unit?

If I built a square box that I could stack 8 buckets in, 4 buckets in a square stacked 2 high, w/ a hinged lid and a removable side, would one bulb in the floor and one bulb in the top generate enough heat to warm those buckets liquid in 24 hours? Or would that over heat the honey? I guess I would need a thermostat, a dimmer, and a cut off switch attached to the thermostat?


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

I don't think a dimmer is a good idea. It limits the kind of bulbs you can use, and has no added value as long as you use a thermostat anyway.

Some kinds of CFL bulbs are not dimmable.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

So a thermostat w/ an automatic cut off switch when heat in the box gets to a certain temperature?


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

A thermostat *is *a an automatic cut off switch. An cheap and easy thermostat is one intended for an electric water heater.


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## funwithbees (Mar 27, 2010)

Hi Mark,
We use a box constructed of 2" foil faced foam board, held together with 5" pole barn nails and duct tape. make sure you enclose the bottom also. The pails are elevated off the bottom by a couple of 2X4 pieces . The heat is supplied by a 1500 watt milk house heater, with the internal thermostat bypassed. It is plugged into a Walter Kelley external thermostat kept inside the box. Set at 120 F. we also have an extra fan behind the heater to keep the air moving. pails are just right in 24 hours or so. Also works for drums, just a different size box.
Nick


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Thanks Nick.

Virgil. Is that down in the Vinegar Lakes?


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## funwithbees (Mar 27, 2010)

Cortland county. Here we have 2 seasons-winter and 4th of July ! The next few days will weed out any dinks here. Glad we don't have many that are small.


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## funwithbees (Mar 27, 2010)

I agree with Rader. The Kelley thermostat is the same as a water heater thermostat. They are the ones they used on their water jacketed cappings melters.


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## My-smokepole (Apr 14, 2008)

I am using one from Honey Run Ap.. 75$ range and it has work great. 
David


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## Steve10 (Nov 19, 2008)

Mark, Don't know if this might help. I have 2-door beverage cooler I converted. I removed the cooling system, but retained the fans. Added a couple of light bulbs and hooked them up with a thermostat. It holds 15 medium supers. I haven't filled it with buckets, but it would probably hold a dozen.


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## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

we use an old deep freeze with 3 60 watt bulbs. The temperature is controlled by a Ranco thermostat. The bulbs sit under a mesh floor that the pails sit on so that the heat is sourced from underneath the pails. If you have the bulbs on the lid it will not work. We have a 4 inch fan conected with the bulbs so that when they are on the heat is circulated througout. This system work great and is easy to set up.


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## matt1954 (Sep 8, 2010)

Mark, this wont help you. But with smaller one pound bottles that have crystalized, I put them in my queen cell incubator overnight, turn up the heat and by morning they are liquefied. Holds about 8 one pound bottles.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

dgl1948 said:


> we use an old deep freeze with 3 60 watt bulbs. The temperature is controlled by a Ranco thermostat. The bulbs sit under a mesh floor that the pails sit on so that the heat is sourced from underneath the pails. If you have the bulbs on the lid it will not work. We have a 4 inch fan conected with the bulbs so that when they are on the heat is circulated througout. This system work great and is easy to set up.


Almost exactly what I use. Very handy system, but does require lifting heavy pails.


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## NowThen (Nov 26, 2008)

Mark,
I just converted an old fridge to a honey warmer. I know that your enclosure will probably be different but, this thermostat has been working well for me over the last few months:














It is designed to heat a terrarium or reptile enclosure. You can plug two heat sources (light bulbs, heating pads...) into it as long as the combined peak wattage is less than 500. Because the thermostat does not have a digital readout of the actual temp of the enclosure, I added the little yellow thermometer. The probes for both the thermometer and thermostat sit inside the enclosure. The combined cost for the thermostat and thermometer is around $50.00.

As far as the enclosure goes, I once visited a fella in Iowa who simply made a really big box out of sheets of pink foam insulation - held together with duct tape. It wasn't pretty, but it held together well and best of all, worked like a charm.


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## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> Would a Blow Dryer generate enough heat? Would it burn out from long duration use?


Use an interior car warmer instead of a blow dryer. It's got a fan, a thermostat, and the good ones have sensors that'll trip before a fire can start if things get to hot.

I did a stack of supers for extracting this fall using one, worked well. I set down an empty super on a spare bottom board in the garage, then put the warmer in so that it was drawing air thru the bottom entrance. I set the thermostat to just over mid range, stacked on the supers for extracting, with an inner cover on top of the stack. Left it overnight, and, everything was nice and toasty warm when we started extracting the next day.

If you have any kind of cabinet / closet that'll hold your buckets, an interior car warmer will give you the temps you want, no fears of it burning out, and the good ones have decent internal fire protection as well as the fan and thermostat.


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