Hi all, I’ve recently bought a terrarium heat/cool controller which has a separable thermocouple with a typical metal cylinder end, and it’s been great, but there’s one thing that’s kind of annoying and I was wondering if there is a good way to improve on that.
I use the controller with a quartz heater to keep my room at the right temperature for myself since I don’t feel changes in temperature sometimes when I’m focusing on work and then I realize I’ve been sitting in a much too hot room for hours or I end up with a cold. The controller automatically turns off the heating when it reaches the target temperature (I usually set it anywhere between 20-26C, usually around 23C). It also has an alarm that goes off if even despite the heater being energized a temperature below 17C is reached, which can happen if I leave the window open too long, or if I turn the heater off and forget to turn it back on and then go to sleep (I would get ill). The probe is raised 20cm off the floor, roughly in the middle of the room.
During winter, in Europe it’s customary to open the windows every now and then to exchange the air and get fresh air in so you don’t suffocate. European houses don’t have AC or air ducts normally. When I open the windows in autumn, it takes a while for the low-temp condition to be reached. However, in winter, like today, what happens is I open the window, cold air rushes in and floods the floor replacing all hot air that escapes, and the probe immediately gets cold while I’m still perfectly comfortable.
The probe is overly sensitive for what it’s being asked to do. How can I improve on this? I understand this has to do with two things:
- thermal mass
- heat transfer between ambient air and the thermal mass
How can I improve the two parameters above to be more like a human body, while also keeping the least volume for practical reasons?
submitted by /u/cheater00
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