Adjusting the power of the heating element: an overview of methods

Hello! "Voltage reducer" - not quite right to call it. Heating of something by heating elements is controlled in two ways:

1. Thermostat. In this case, the heating elements turn off when the set temperature is reached and turn on when the temperature drops below the set limit.
2. Regulator. In this case, there is a smooth power regulation.

There are a lot of thermostats on the market, as well as regulators. To do this, use simistor power controllers (similar to dimmers for adjusting the brightness of lamps). You need to choose with a power reserve. Those. if your heating elements consume 3000 watts in total, then you need a regulator of 4000 watts or more, preferably 5000. Also, there should be a radiator on the regulator, pay attention to this, the larger the radiator, the better (in stores they write "3500 watts" and they do not have a radiator and in fact only hold 300 watts).

You can also reduce the power of the heating elements in other ways - by installing a switch and turning off one of the heating elements. Additionally, you can put a diode - it will make the heating element work at half of the power. Those. the scheme is as follows:

1. We install a switch on each of the heating elements.
2. We put a diode in parallel with the switch of one of the heating elements.
3. We put a general switch (automatic, for example) on both heating elements.

Then it works like this:

1. Both switches are on - maximum power of two heating elements (100%).
2. The switch is off (the one without a diode) - 1 heating element is operating at full power (50%).
3. The switch is turned off in parallel to which the diode is installed, and the second switch is on - 1 heating element operates at full power, and the second one half, totaling 75% of the total power (one and a half heating elements).
4. Both switches are off - only 1 heating element operates at half the power (25% of the total power).

Here's another idea for how to make a regulator:

There is a ready-made solution, for example, gt10000w, usually these are unnamed Chinese-made devices, it is better to choose themselves on the Internet, upon request in the search "Power regulator for heating elements 5000 kW" (well, or what is your power specify).