Up ambient temperature

Up ambient temperature

Postby munnik » Fri Jul 24, 2009 6:31 pm

I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice regarding additional heating of my cages.

I've had to move my cages to the garage (it's a space thing, not a wife thing :lol: ). I have those foil pads in all the cages, the prescribed 1/3 of the cage. My snakes move freely between the cool and warm side, but my ambient temperature is 20 degrees C.

My question is how would I go about pushing the temperature up to about 25-28 degrees C. The options I'm looking at are to either put in a suitably protected bulb or to stick a heat pad to the roof inside the cage. There's also getting a heater for the garage.

Any suggestions.

Andrew
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Re: Up ambient temperature

Postby fredsmith » Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:34 pm

Mines in the garage too... But mine IS a wife thing...
Infra-Red light bulbs work for me. My cage has 2 150w on either end and an additional 100w on the warmer end. Controlled with individual thermostats, it's not too hard to maintain an ambient temp like that.
In this sudden cold snap they're gonna be pushing the lights bill up though..... Eish.
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Re: Up ambient temperature

Postby munnik » Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:53 pm

:lol: Mine almost became a wife thing when I suggested running a heater full time in the garage.

I've been checking the web and it seems I'll either go with a normal spot onthe warm side or an IR bulb. i only really need to push the temp up by about 5 - 8 degrees. The thing is, my Tai is in a 1.3m cage now, so I'd like some heating alternatives for when I put him in a bigger cage.
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Re: Up ambient temperature

Postby Carpetpythons » Sat Jul 25, 2009 12:07 am

Get a thermostat controlled fan heater. They cost around R150. And will keep ambient air temp where you set it.
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Re: Up ambient temperature

Postby Iggy » Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:21 am

If you are thinking of IR, maybe try the ceramic heater types rather than a globe - they should last much longer and give off no light at all. The ones supplied by reptile companies are usually very expensive but I have just sourced 500W ones, which use a standard par38 globe fitting, for R290 plus VAT (saw an 80W advertised through a pet shoup for R+400!!!). They also have 150W, 250W and 300W. The company is called unitemp, you can find them on the 'net.
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Re: Up ambient temperature

Postby Buck Rogers » Sat Jul 25, 2009 6:02 pm

fredsmith wrote:In this sudden cold snap they're gonna be pushing the lights bill up though..... Eish.


Tell me about it my electricity bill sky rockets in winter. In my experience heaters aren't the greatest choice try looking at Ceramic screw in heaters like Iggy says. But be aware that they must be out of reach of the reptile or the reptile will get some serious 3rd degree burns, these are unforgiving!
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Re: Up ambient temperature

Postby munnik » Sat Jul 25, 2009 6:35 pm

Popped into a pet shop this afternoon and spoke to the guy there about additional heating. He had the red reptile basking spots. But instead of selling it to me he made this suggestion, he uses this for hatchling parrots................. try using a normal incandescent bulb and wrapping it with tinfoil to cancel out light emission (with the necessary protection so the snake doesn't make contact).
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Re: Up ambient temperature

Postby Buck Rogers » Sat Jul 25, 2009 7:49 pm

I am by no means an electrician but that sounds a little dicey?!?
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Re: Up ambient temperature

Postby Iggy » Sat Jul 25, 2009 7:57 pm

But be aware that they must be out of reach of the reptile or the reptile will get some serious 3rd degree burns, these are unforgiving

sorry, forgot to mention that! if they are in the enclosure you must build some sort of cage around them....(we are designing ours ourselves). You can also purchase reflectors for them.
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Re: Up ambient temperature

Postby Bushviper » Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:46 pm

Tin foil does not burn that easily however my heating the bulb up more than normal it will weaken the filament and you will replacing bulbs regularly. In the long run it will possibly not be worth it.
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Re: Up ambient temperature

Postby munnik » Wed Jul 29, 2009 8:08 am

So here's what I've figured out so far. I'm now running 2 pads in the Tai's cage. The normal 350 x 350 on the bottom of the cage and a 350 x 350 on the side of the cage on the warm side. Temps this morning (6H30) were 19 on the warm side(WS) and 14 on the cool side (CS). The pad on the side wall is under a tile and doesn't feel very warm to the touch, so I'm wondering if it isn't a lower wattage, in which case the results will be skewed.

With the 100W bulb I was getting 31 (WS) and 24 (CS) at 17H00 and 24(WS) and 19(CS) at 06H30..

So far it looks like the bulb is the winner. Just need to figure out how to cage it inside the snake cage so that snakey doesn't get burned. :smt017

I am going to see about 25W heat tape this week end and then see what happens.

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