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Thread: Portable electric room heater

  1. #11
    Drew Wiley
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    Sep 2008
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    Re: Portable electric room heater

    Heck, just plan on a little mounting first. A drymount press will heat things up fast enough! One more reason to have plenty of juice going into the darkroom. Mine even has its own subpanel, with both 110 and 220 voltage. But I never mount anything in the same room as I develop prints. No "dry side" versus "wet side" for me; completely different rooms instead! Even separate rooms for the enlargers and film work. Don't need a bunch of corrosion or mildew!

  2. #12

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    Re: Portable electric room heater

    Another danger point is the outlet itself... Old outlet contacts oxidize, get slightly burnt, become resistive and can become a heating element itself and can get dangerously hot with normal to higher current devices plugged into them... Sometimes defective even new ones can generate heat/sparks...

    A good weekend project would be to plan on replacing all outlets in your space with new, with GFCI in wet locations and good grounded in other places, and get one of those outlet tester plug-ins to check for a good ground and proper phasing...

    New outlets are only around a buck a piece, and good insurance from electrical issues...

    Steve K

  3. #13

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    Re: Portable electric room heater

    Oh, and another tip with in-room heaters is that they can dry the air severely in use, so getting a humidifier from your drug store will help keep static and dust down and is easier on your sinuses and dry eyes...

    Short of that, you can also hang a wet, non dripping towel in the room to provide some humidity as it dries out...

    Really helps when the air is so dry that your fingers act like 10 spark plugs and your roll film starts curling up like a long straw...

    Steve K

  4. #14
    jp's Avatar
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    Re: Portable electric room heater

    Quote Originally Posted by LabRat View Post
    Another danger point is the outlet itself... Old outlet contacts oxidize, get slightly burnt, become resistive and can become a heating element itself and can get dangerously hot with normal to higher current devices plugged into them... Sometimes defective even new ones can generate heat/sparks...

    A good weekend project would be to plan on replacing all outlets in your space with new, with GFCI in wet locations and good grounded in other places, and get one of those outlet tester plug-ins to check for a good ground and proper phasing...

    New outlets are only around a buck a piece, and good insurance from electrical issues...

    Steve K
    According to youtube and it's worth considering.. The cheapest outlets are junk and you get way better ruggedness and reliability spending $5 instead for an outlet which is still very reasonable.

  5. #15

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    Mar 2005
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    Newbury, Vermont
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    Re: Portable electric room heater

    I also like my oil filled radiator/heater. No dust blowing around, on wheels so I can move it around depending upon what else I'm doing in the darkroom - and can later position it for maximum (convective current) effectiveness while I'm not present.

    As mentioned above...just be careful of current draw as this may affect other important accessories which may depend on the same circuit.

    When I designed and built my current darkroom, I made sure that my enlarger bench had its own isolated electrical circuit...keeping any relatively "high draw" accessories like the room heater and film dryer from adversely affecting enlarger lamp output. Even so...I'll still turn off the room heater while I'm making an (enlarger) exposure - just to be sure!

  6. #16
    Daniel Stone's Avatar
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    Re: Portable electric room heater

    Firstly, the one you likely already have, and might not have considered: a sweater or hoodie. Costs nothing to add, can easily be stored away in warmer months, and doesn't impact your electric bill until you need to launder it :P
    Appropriately sized base layers can help too, and those can be used while out shooting in cooler weather as well
    I've used the "dish" heaters sold at many big box retailers during winter months. I don't leave them on for long, just enough to warm a space to 65-70F and then turn it off. You can set them up on a timer as well, some even have this feature straight from the factory now.

    -Dan

  7. #17
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Portable electric room heater

    Humidifiers?.... Interesting thought, but sure not here on our coast! Just the opposite. One has to periodically check electrical contacts and wiring for symptoms of damp salt air corrosion. Good reliable darkroom outlets are more likely to cost you around twenty bucks apiece, preferably from a real pro electrical supply house and not some Cheapo Depot kind of outlet. And you want higher capacity 20A ones than just room lighting requires. Any power strips should be industrial grade with a thick cord, like used for serious power tools and not just little office and computer toys. You get what you pay for.

    Any new darkroom should be wired to at least the code standards of a kitchen, because both involve high-wattage "appliances".

  8. #18

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    Re: Portable electric room heater

    During a particularly dry Santa Ana wind spell (with RH about 2%), I had a large printing project, but felt like Edward Scissorhands when getting severe shocks touching anything grounded seeing/feeling an arc, and the first few prints had the "mark of the beast" static marks printed into the borders, so had to do something fast!!! Grabbed a bucket and mop and slathered water all over the floors (which dried in 15 minutes) to hold down static, then re-applied the entire long printing session...

    Shocking...

    Steve K

  9. #19
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Portable electric room heater

    1/2 my location year is very humid

    Winter I run 5 to 10 gallons a day in my DR humidifier, I even have a dedicated hose for it as the humidifier is under my DR sink

    As my furnace inlet is 10 ft away I get full small house Humidification

    I also treat water for this usage
    Tin Can

  10. #20
    Maris Rusis's Avatar
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    May 2006
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    Noosa, Australia.
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    Re: Portable electric room heater

    I live in a warm climate but the darkroom needs a bit of heat for two months a year. After fussing with a fan heater, bar heater, and an oil filled radiant I finally snapped, bit the financial bullet, and had the darkroom properly wired up with 6 power outlets (need 'em all). Then I had the smallest reverse cycle air-conditioner installed. In reverse it's the cheapest source of heat. In cool mode it's bliss in summer.
    I figure I'm going to spend several hundred hours in there so it better be nice.
    Photography:first utterance. Sir John Herschel, 14 March 1839 at the Royal Society. "...Photography or the application of the Chemical rays of light to the purpose of pictorial representation,..".

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