Help with thermostatically controlled outlet for heater?

[pointer80]

Hello everyone, I am trying to rig up a heater for my grow tent and I want to hook it up to a thermostatically controlled outlet but most of them that I am finding(Amazon) only handle up to 1000 watts and most heaters are over that wattage. Does anybody know of a thermostatically controlled outlet that will handle over 1000 watts? Thanks all in advance.

 

[TorturedSoul]

It would complicate your setup (very) slightly, but have you thought about getting a relay that can handle the higher load you need and is triggered by 120V (or whatever voltage your thermostatically-controlled outlet supplies)? You'd plug your heater into the relay, plug it into a regular outlet, then connect its trigger to the switching outlet. Temperature drops, that outlet begins supplying power, that power triggers your relay, which activates, thereby powering your heater (again, the relay is actually powered by a normal "full power" outlet and only triggered by your thermostatically-controlled one). Temperature rises, your switchable outlet shuts off and no longer supplies voltage to your relay's trigger, which causes the relay to shut off and stop powering your heater.

That probably reads 100X more complicated than it actually is, lol. It's pretty much the same thing that I (and others, including the vehicle manufacturers) do when I need to have a "high-current" device get full voltage/amperage when something else powers up, but that "something else" cannot directly supply sufficient power.

I don't know how long this link will remain in my post (although I am not aware of any of our sponsors selling such a product, but one of them might), but here's a relay I pulled up at random from Amazon. NOTE: I did this purely to give a general example! Do not take this as any kind of product endorsement whatsoever (and, as always, read everything - including all the reviews - before deciding whether or not to purchase any product).

Again, I pulled the above out of the "Internet hat," randomly. I chose to use it for my example because of a review attached to it:

Works great. I use this relay in conjunction with an STC-1000 temperature controller to control a space heater. The space heater thermostat was terrible so I needed something to regulate the room temperature better. The STC-1000 is only rated 10A so I use the heating relay to energize this relay and this 30A relay then turns the heater on and off. A 1500W heater only draws 12.5A so this relay gives a safety factor of over 2. I put the whole thing in a 6x6x4 Carlon PVC box with a duplex outlet. Been working great for 2 months.

Basically what you are needing to do, I believe. But don't just blindly purchase THIS product . One reviewer stated it failed in two months at a lower load than it was rated for. Again, I just grabbed it for "illustration" purposes. Use your own judgment when choosing products for eventual purchase. . . .