“We moderate the temperature using a simple incandescent light bulb.”
Any electric heater of the same wattage will work.
In a similar application I pressed a 150 W “cartridge heater” into a surplus heat sink’s fins, and I get good temp control. The lifetime of the cart heater is many thousands of hours. Here is an example, but I got mine surplus for practically free. The main challenge was getting the right diameter cart to press-fit between the heatsink fins.
http://www.omega.com/prodinfo/CartridgeHeaters.html
Still, though, if you want to use an incan lamp, the f, I mean friendly, government should butt out. There was a proposal in CA to require the use of remote radio thermostats that would report their settings to a van driving by, and some talk of enabling the van to re-set the thermostat remotely “in emergencies”.
The original plan in America was a government so limited they’d leave us alone. We’ve got to get back there.
Interesting idea about that heater. However, I’ve built such a good root cellar that that much heat might make it too warm. I once had two 40-watt bulbs going in there, and even at -40 degrees F I was getting temps in the high 30s, which is a wee bit too warm for my veggies and butter. I suspect 150 watts would turn the place into a sauna.
Now if I could get a thermostat which would turn it on and off when the temperature went below, let’s say, 33 degrees, when it might even make it more energy efficient.
We live in a place with real grinding poverty, though, and the technology involved with a lamp and a bulb are available to just about everyone. And it works. And when the bulb burns out, I don’t have to call Fairbanks and wait two weeks for it to arrive.
My greenhouse, on the other hand, would a great place for that kind of low level heat. Thanks.