Hi Arthur,
14 watts sounds a bit hefty to me.
Although I had advice to make a heater at 15-20 watts when I was asking.
I actually made two heaters from resistors at 6 watts each.
Which means a total amp rating of 1 amp at 12 volts.
One heater for light dew, and two for heavy dew.
I had no problems at all last week with the dew when using both heaters..
Nicrome wire might behave differently, it will be interesting to see how it goes.
With regard to cleaning, I got hold of this great stuff from Bintel.
Its nicknamed "jungle juice".
It is especially made for cleaning correcting plates / lenses with UHTC.
The cleaners' correct name is UHTC cleaning solution.
Just call BINTEL as I did, and they send it out to you . I ordered it one day and had it the next....about $18 dollars if I remember rightly.
They say that we shouldnt use it too often....only occasionaly.
Look forward to catching up again soon.
Geoff.