Grain pedestal temperature controller

benny6910

Member

Arable Farmer

• Aug 6, 2023

• #1

With the current electric prices being high what are people using to turn their fans on when the air temperature is low enough to do some good? Had a quick look on amazon but not too sure what I want. I have a mixture of single and 3 phase fans. Thanks in advance Ben.

 

Thick Farmer

Member

Location

West Wales

• Aug 6, 2023

• #2

Thermostat should do it.

 

T

Tractor Boy

Member

Location

Suffolk

• Aug 7, 2023

• #3

On single phase fans I just used to use a 13amp plug timer and only set it to come on at night.

 

Grass And Grain

Member

Mixed Farmer

Location

Yorks

• Aug 7, 2023

• #4

benny6910 said:

With the current electric prices being high what are people using to turn their fans on when the air temperature is low enough to do some good? Had a quick look on amazon but not too sure what I want. I have a mixture of single and 3 phase fans. Thanks in advance Ben.

Click to expand...

Inkbird off eBay for about £25-£30 @Drillman has one as well.

Will have to look which model I have.Mine's single phase, don't know if they do a 3 phase.

iirc there's two outputs to plug your 13amp single phase plug into. Plug it into the one marked "heating", then think of your pedestal fan as a fan heater in a room. Say at this time of year you're wanting fan to work anything under 14° ambient temperature, then set the inkbird to turn off when air temperature reaches 14° under the "heating max temperature" setting (can't remember exact wording).

 

benny6910

Member

Arable Farmer

• Aug 7, 2023

• #5

Grass And Grain said:

Inkbird off eBay for about £25-£30 @Drillman has one as well.

Will have to look which model I have.Mine's single phase, don't know if they do a 3 phase.

iirc there's two outputs to plug your 13amp single phase plug into. Plug it into the one marked "heating", then think of your pedestal fan as a fan heater in a room. Say at this time of year you're wanting fan to work anything under 14° ambient temperature, then set the inkbird to turn off when air temperature reaches 14° under the "heating max temperature" setting (can't remember exact wording).

Click to expand...

Thanks I’ll take a look.

 

principal skinner

Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Bedfordshire

• Aug 7, 2023

• #6

Inkbird here. Just set the temp to 5 degrees below grain temperature

 

Badshot

Member

Location

Kent

• Aug 8, 2023

• #7

Yes inkbird.
I went a step further and run a humidity controller in front of the temp controllers, they work very well and are nice and cheap.
Depending on your fan size you can run several off one controller.

 

Badshot

Member

Location

Kent

• Aug 8, 2023

• #8

On my 30kw fans I've set up a temp/differential temp/humidity/time of day controller with bits bought from Amazon.
You need good knowledge of electrics (a good friend of mine does) and an open mind for what you're wanting things to do because the instructions probably won't tell you, but they actually can.

I can show you my setup if anyone's interested.

 

BuskhillFarm

Member

Arable Farmer

• Aug 8, 2023

• #9

Are there any you can get for the 16amp plugs or do you just change the plugs to 13amp ones?

 

S

SilliamWhale

Member

Location

Does it matter anymore how far WalterP is from me?

• Aug 8, 2023

• #10

Badshot said:

On my 30kw fans I've set up a temp/differential temp/humidity/time of day controller with bits bought from Amazon.
You need good knowledge of electrics (a good friend of mine does) and an open mind for what you're wanting things to do because the instructions probably won't tell you, but they actually can.

I can show you my setup if anyone's interested.

Click to expand...

Please can you go through the set up here with photos?

 

Adeptandy

Member

Arable Farmer

Location

PE15

• Aug 8, 2023

• #11

Badshot said:

On my 30kw fans I've set up a temp/differential temp/humidity/time of day controller with bits bought from Amazon.
You need good knowledge of electrics (a good friend of mine does) and an open mind for what you're wanting things to do because the instructions probably won't tell you, but they actually can.

I can show you my setup if anyone's interested.

Click to expand...

Very interested please

 

Badshot

Member

Location

Kent

• Aug 8, 2023

• #12

Adeptandy said:

Very interested please

Click to expand...

I'll get a pic tomorrow.

 

Badshot

Member

Location

Kent

• Aug 8, 2023

• #13

BuskhillFarm said:

Are there any you can get for the 16amp plugs or do you just change the plugs to 13amp ones?

Click to expand...

The inkbird ones are 13amp only.
If the fan you're wanting to use is more than this it'd need to run through a relay of some sort of you'd toast it.

 

Badshot

Member

Location

Kent

• Aug 9, 2023

• #14

Very quickly as it's dry.

I had soft starts with auto capability installed when the store was built.
I then had a tryac system for humidity installed, this was ok, but needed calibration by them each year at considerable cost. This died with a power surge.

The tryac box still installed doesn't really do much now but we left it there.

I then made my own bit to control the fans.

I can do temp and humidity, differential temp and timered for cheap rate use
There's also a timer inside which limits start ups.

 

Badshot

Member

Location

Kent

• Aug 9, 2023

• #15

And this is my setup for the little fans .
I run 3 on each temp controller.