Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- blog:2022-01-04:humming_bird_feeder_heater [2022/01/04 10:56] – created va7ilo
+++ blog:2022-01-04:humming_bird_feeder_heater [2022/01/04 10:58] (current) – va7ilo
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+====== Hummingbird Feeder Heater ======
+During our net this morning ( January 4, 2022 ) discussion came up about how our tiny feathered friends are doing in the recent cold snap, this was something I tried to keep one of our hummingbird feeders from freezing up.
+I was looking at ideas for using small heating pads to keep it de-iced when I ran across what this fellow did on YouTube, it is so simple and inexpensive that I thought it was absolutely brilliant.
+It uses four 1/4 watt 100 ohm resistors in parallel epoxied to the bottom of the feeder, then an old USB charger and cable to supply power to it, the resulting output being 1 watt with the 5 volts supplied by the charger.
+I made one exactly like this and it worked fairly well, the top couple of inches froze during the cold snap, however if I put less solution in the feeder it probably would work better, I am also considering trying the same setup using eight 1/2 watt 100 ohm resistors to increase the output to 2 watts total, splitting them into two groups of four to distribute the heat more evenly too.
+Below is a link to the You Tube video and a couple of photos of my feeder, hopefully this is of interest to people, it certainly is helpful to these little birds.
+[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0ZxCSiPqa0|USB Heated Hummingbird Feeder]]
+{{ :blog:2022-01-04:heater.jpg?600 |}}
+{{ :blog:2022-01-04:feeder.jpg?600 |}}