tawny
New Bee
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2011
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Bishops Stortford
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 6, one in a TBH
I have been having a play with a 12v element for boiling water in a cup which had been listed on an auction site. The version I had was 200w (£6) and am now waiting for a 120w version (£3). For the bowl I used a copper compression fitting blanking cap. This is the type that screws inside a fitting rather than on the outside. Fortunately I had one on my copper tubing style vapouriser. This screwed inside the coiled element. My son had then wired this to a switch and all was cable tied to a bit of angle iron to create a long length for putting inside the hive. The bowl holds more than enough OA for a hive. A test outisde of the hive showed from flicking the swictch on to all of the OA being vapourised as gone in 60 seconds. What I have learnt is that the element melted part of the fitting, proabably through not having any liquid around the element to slow down the heating. Just think what happens to a kettle that is empty.. The heating up times seem in line with commercial vapourisers. The switch could be used to turn on and off over that time to prevent melting of the plactic, but that is what we will look at next with the 120 w version. The battery used was a small 12v around a bike sized battery. My local battery manufacturer Sheild Batteries do them for around £12. Part of the angle iron is being ground down to enable it to fit in the entrance. That said I reckon you could use this under the OMF as the vapour rises.