I’m designing a bath which should keep the temperature of the liquid inside (transformer oil) at a constant temperature (approx. 20 °C).
I have calculated the amount of energy needed to heat up the volume of liquid inside, however due to the bath having an open top, I also want to take into consideration the effect of ambient temperature. (the bath is small, so I'm worried that ambient temperature will affect its performance)
I know I should probably consider a simple model for this, as I don't want to over complicate by considering a lot of parameters.
By assuming that the air above the container is a reservoir whose temperature is constant and is in thermal contact with the surface of the liquid, would considering heat transfer through convection be enough?
Since the setup would be inside a laboratory, conditions should be stable enough (such as air velocity and humidity).