Hi, this might seem fairly trivial to you guys, but hear me out.
I'm a member of a student Mechanical Engineering group for my Thermodynamics course, and we are tasked with designing a heating system for a 15 gallon tank. The heater is required to keep the tank at 78 degrees +-1degree, and the tank is going to be put outside for the purposes of our exam(where the temperature could be as low as 30 degrees F).
Here's the issue. While we have a good idea as to how much heat we are actually going to need, the issue is if we should sort of rig up a heater, or if we should go with an off the shelf. I myself, being an ME(as well as the rest of my group), have very limited experience in programming microcontrollers to actually control a heater(control systems are the domain of EE's typically). I was wondering if you guys might know of any brands of heaters that have automatic controls that can't give us this kind of accuracy. I know the pumping and circulation of the water is going to be an issue, but that's something that we feel we can easily address.
We've got a budget of 200 bucks, and of course we're also required to create a pump for the purpose of recirculating the water. Don't worry, there aren't going to be fish in the tank, it's purely an exercise in eastimating heat conduction from the tank, etc. So if any of you guys might know of a good product that is capable of keeping water temps very consistent, could you please let me know. I figure who better to ask, then people who spend a lot of money, and who have a lot of practical experience working with these kinds of systems.
I'm a member of a student Mechanical Engineering group for my Thermodynamics course, and we are tasked with designing a heating system for a 15 gallon tank. The heater is required to keep the tank at 78 degrees +-1degree, and the tank is going to be put outside for the purposes of our exam(where the temperature could be as low as 30 degrees F).
Here's the issue. While we have a good idea as to how much heat we are actually going to need, the issue is if we should sort of rig up a heater, or if we should go with an off the shelf. I myself, being an ME(as well as the rest of my group), have very limited experience in programming microcontrollers to actually control a heater(control systems are the domain of EE's typically). I was wondering if you guys might know of any brands of heaters that have automatic controls that can't give us this kind of accuracy. I know the pumping and circulation of the water is going to be an issue, but that's something that we feel we can easily address.
We've got a budget of 200 bucks, and of course we're also required to create a pump for the purpose of recirculating the water. Don't worry, there aren't going to be fish in the tank, it's purely an exercise in eastimating heat conduction from the tank, etc. So if any of you guys might know of a good product that is capable of keeping water temps very consistent, could you please let me know. I figure who better to ask, then people who spend a lot of money, and who have a lot of practical experience working with these kinds of systems.