Comments on: Heating a Small Worm Bin in the Winter

By: Gramps

Gramps — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:37:32 +0000

I use some heating cables for reptile tanks. I have a 50 watt and a 25 watt both controlled by a HydroFarm Thermostat. So that I can use the heater on different bins of desired I mounted the cable on some expandabe screens from Walmart. Without the thermostat the 25 watt works better as it only get to about 85 degrees in my 65 degree basement. The 50 watt will go to around 108 degrees. When sung the thermostat the 50 watt seems to work better. Without the heat cab;es the temp is about 65 degrees and with it’s 78 degrees.

By: Dale Seavey

Dale Seavey — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 02:59:40 +0000

I have been using a heating pad along side of the bin, which is covered in towels to keep light out and heat in, and have placed it on a timer so it will go on for a couple of hours a night and be enough to keep those wriggling worms happy. They seem to be thriving!
Thanks for the feed back and the ideas!

By: Louise

Louise — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:53:28 +0000

Hej Dale
I plan to use heating cables as the ones I use to keep the waterpipes from freezing in the barn, they come in different lengths and are controlled by a termostat – and they are suited for outdoor use.

By: Dale Seavey

Dale Seavey — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:25:15 +0000

Have you heard of anyone using an electric blanket to keep worms in the above freezing zone in the winter for a bin?

By: Ryan Green

Ryan Green — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 15:42:07 +0000

Hey i have had my worms in freezing tempatures and they can stay alive but im not sure if they feed or eat quiet as readily. It would be a great experiment for someone to try whether or not the cold weather will slow the eating cycle down of a worm or not? If someone trys it let me know what your results are.

Thanks,

Ryan

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:42:14 +0000

John,

You could always use a solar panel and battery to produce the electricity for the system. That would add cost to the system, but would be green.

By: rom

rom — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:04:55 +0000

I hear you, where I live my basement does a pretty good job of keeping my worm bin from overheating.

It’s cost prohibitive to buy one for a worm bin (in the $500 and up range, mine was borrowed for a couple years), unless you can find a used one at a good price. Cheaper than buying new fish and coral every fall though. Probably more cost effective to get a cheap air conditioner unit and jerry-rig it to cool the area around your worm bin which still would be more than I would want to spend for a worm bin. I just saw the aquarium heater setup and thought to myself, “hey, that works the other way too”. I like tinkering but not if I have to spend a lot of money.

Here’s a thought. Same setup minus the heater and use a larger container of water (long rubbermaid bin?). Have the water returning to the bin fall onto a pile of stuff, (rocks,small rubber balls) whatever you can pile up above the water line to give lots of surface area to get as much of the water to evaporate as possible. The evaporation should cool the water. Not like a chiller or air conditioner but cooler than the water returning from the worm bin.

The creel I use for fly fishing works in the same way. You just dunk it in the water every now and then and the evaporating water keeps the fish from smelling without the use of a cooler full of ice.

Not really necessary where I live but i like tinkering with stuff.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:09:32 +0000

ROM – thanks for sharing that – sounds interesting. I’d be curious to know how much these ‘chillers’ might cost. I certainly wouldn’t need to use one in my location, but those living in extremely hot regions might want to use something like that.

By: Rom.Calgary

Rom.Calgary — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:24:54 +0000

You could use this setup to cool the bin as well. I used to keep a marine aquarium and had to get a chiller for the few months of summer that we get. It is controlled the same way an aquarium heater works and if you combine the two (depending on the power of the heating and cooling systems, the amount of water being cooled, max and min temperatures, etc.) in your setup you may be able to maintain a very small temperature range.

By: Order Your Domain

Order Your Domain — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 12:56:19 +0000

Actually as Mark mentions about the siphon idea, the pump should be lowered as to have water siphon push water into the pump. This will put less stress on the pump as long as not set too much lower. Set the pump level to where the siphon begins to work. This will prolong the life of the pump.

Bruce