LadyHK's "Cock-a-Doodle-Condo"

[bacpacker]

They are doing good. How old are they?

[ladyhk13]

6 month

[Sniper-T]

Nice... congrats on the success!

[ladyhk13]

Thanks! I do have a problem though. It's been sooo freezing cold here that our indoor water nipples have been freezing. We've been putting bowls of water in the coop for them (actually kept them inside the last 2 days since its been so cold) but they throw litter in it and by morning it's frozen too.
We've been looking for a 12v heater that we can warm the water with (I'll buy a regular waterer for it instead of using bowls) to hookup to the solar but can't find anything except for regular electric power. I would think somewhere makes one for off grid use. Any ideas?

[Sniper-T]

all kinds of 12v heaters...

http://www.amazon.ca/s/?ie=UTF8&keyw...l_4pjvp8qsww_e

[ladyhk13]

I want one that their water can sit on top of.

[Sniper-T]

as in a water bowl?

like a dog would have?
http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/08...19_500X500.jpg

Why not just grab something like this and throw it in:
http://www.a2zcamping.co.uk/user/pro...er-Element.jpg

Oh, wait, I forgot that you have the 5 star rated chicken coop, needs to look good too...

hmmm...

How about something like this:

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping...rn-maker/56986

and you can pop the corn for the chickens too.

[ladyhk13]

Is the first one 12 v that can be hooked up to our solar panel? Looks like a regular 110 plug. The next one looks like something that would go into a car battery. BWRR has a panel that is wired for 12 v so maybe he should take a pic of it so you can see how it is set up to be wired so you can see what we need.

[Domeguy]

Any appliance rated for 12DC can be wired into the electrical panel you are using on the coup. You could cut off the DC plug and detect wire or install a permanent female plug into the panel so you can disconnect and remove the heater when it is not in use so the chickens won't ruin it. From what I remember seeing, I don't think BWRR used an inverter anywhere in the system, but if he did, you could use a standard AC heater, as long as it wasn't to strong for the battery.

[Sniper-T]

Is the first one 12 v that can be hooked up to our solar panel? Looks like a regular 110 plug. The next one looks like something that would go into a car battery. BWRR has a panel that is wired for 12 v so maybe he should take a pic of it so you can see how it is set up to be wired so you can see what we need.

What about the third link? cut the cig lighter plug off, and wire it up!