Radiant Heat Panels?

Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby ewertb » Tue Jul 15, 2014 4:05 pm

Do we get radiant heat panels (like these http://pro-products.com/pro-heat/) in SA to use for enclosure heating?
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby Foxticity » Tue Jul 15, 2014 4:31 pm

Howsit Bud

It seems likely to be the same thing as the local Econo-Heat Wall Panel heaters we have in SA.
Also easy to mount, spreads heat over the surface and low consumption.

Many breeders use these in their snake rooms. Placed with big enclosures like Monte Casino Bird Park also use these to heat their reptile/Bird cages.

Look out for the new one which has accessories that can just plug in like regulators and thermostats.
We use them and very happy with them.

Hope it helps...
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby Blet » Tue Jul 15, 2014 5:41 pm

Nope, not the same and nope, you dont get them here. I looked into these and importing them would have been too expensive for the enclosure size I use. They are fantastic though, take up little space are waterproof and are guaranteed not to cause a fire or overheat...possibly making them worth every penny. Best used with arboreal species so they can get close enough to make use of the typically limited IR travel. I'm using IR lamps without thermostats for a hot spot and manipulate the room temps otherwise with quite a nifty thermostat you can set up to four daily events on. My enclosures are large enough to get away without stats on the IR lamps and the occupants make full use of them...except for the Bloods...they seem happier at the cooler end ie room temp.
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby ewertb » Tue Jul 15, 2014 7:23 pm

When heating an entire room, at what temperatures do you guys run it at? I'm slightly reluctant to heat the entire room as it serves as my hobby room (a.k.a. outbuilding man-cave for us married ones) and don't want to sit sweating at 28-29C while 'chilling' in there with my other hobbies...

Guess I can however maintain it at 24-25C which should still be comfortable to me and provide the supplemental heat for the reps in form of basking heat pads or lights on thermostats?
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby ewertb » Wed Jul 16, 2014 11:36 am

Sometimes one just has to sleep on an idea for it to bear fruit so I've decided to heat my room with Econo-Heat panels as suggested by Foxticity and have supplemental heated spots in each cage in lieu of trying to heat each individual cage.

That being resolved and not wanting to create a new post I'll be moving off on a very slight tangent of how to actually go about creating these heat/basking spots in said cages? Except for the glass Exo Terra cages I'm using for my geckos I intend using stackable plastic or melamine cages for ball pythons. As neither plastic or melamine are heat conducters this poses the problem that I cannot use under tank heaters and from what I've researched using any heat rocks/pads inside the cage, even with a thermostat placed right against it, is a big taboo. Ceramic bulbs and basking lamps are also a problem inside the cage due to burn possibilities and with the cages being stacked I can't put them on the outside... Any recommendations?
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby Jamster » Thu Jul 17, 2014 9:09 am

I was thinking of using one of the standard wall heating panels for my big python room but the panels get way too hot without a thermostat. I suppose to heat a room sized enclosure it would work but it would need a mesh cage around it to stop the snakes from burning themselves. For snake enclosures I don't see why ceramic heat emitters arent sufficient. For BIG cages the 250W is more than sufficient to boost ambient temps.
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby Blet » Thu Jul 17, 2014 2:31 pm

My room sits at 25-26'C in Summer and I allow it to drop to as low as 16'C in Winter, all the while supplying IR lamp basking spots in each enclosure. My enclosures are large, brick and mortar built and glass/alluminium fronted. I have 90 cubic meters to play with but found even 3 x 400W panels did not really give me the control I wanted. What does work well in my case is an oil heater attached to a thermostat. These chow electricity but are super efficient and quick for this kind of space once up to speed.
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby ewertb » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:20 am

That's huge! My room is only 18 cubes... A single panel should suffice in my case to maintain ambient.
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby Foxticity » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:40 am

We use the panel heaters in our gecko rooms which work fine for us but the rooms are only 12m².
As mentioned with the panel heaters in cages, the heaters are placed far away from all branches where the animal cant reach it.

The panel heater is just to raise the room temps. The panel heater can heat 12m² efficiently so 18m² wont pose a problem unless the room is not well insulated.
DO NOT place the heater under a window or next to a door.
Try insulating your room then the temps will be good with the panel heater..
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby TonyK » Fri Jul 18, 2014 10:47 am

Blet wrote:I have 90 cubic meters to play with but found even 3 x 400W panels did not really give me the control I wanted. What does work well in my case is an oil heater attached to a thermostat. These chow electricity but are super efficient and quick for this kind of space once up to speed.

We need to be careful with this type of comparison ,a typical oil fin type heater runs at 3000w-3800w .Your example above is not really proving anything because your combined watts on the heat panels is only 1200 watts. So sure the more than double powered oil heater will seem to perform better but its not really any more efficient.
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby Bushviper » Fri Jul 18, 2014 11:45 am

I have found that a small slow moving fan attached to the front of a panel heater is great to keep the temps up all the way around the room. Insulating the walls and especially the roof/celing is not that expensive and makes a MASSIVE difference. With our Eskom problem it is critical to make sure that load shedding (which is only supposed to be a few hours at a time) does not let your temperatures drop to freezing.

Wood or rhino board cladding on our walls is not common in SA but this will make a huge difference when the lights go out. Wool insulation in the ceiling along with silver lined bubble wrap will trap all heat inside. Double glazed windows (even home made modified versions) will also keep heat inside and the opposite in summer.
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby Blet » Fri Jul 18, 2014 7:33 pm

Agreed! My oil heater is a 2500W model and the 1200W of the 3 panels will not be able to compete. Adding another 3 panels would have taken up too much wall surface though. Instead a single oil heater was able to manage things just fine taking up mininal space and costing a fraction of the price. I run 2 fans in the room on a constant basis, eliminating any hot or cold spots and thereby actually running more economically. Its just the way my room works best. Luckily my room has insulation all round.
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby passionforreptiles » Wed Mar 18, 2015 3:23 am

Sorry to drag up such an old post but a radiant heat panel and oil radiant heater are two different things. Oil radiant heater increased ambient temperature for a room. Radiant heat panels create a hotspot for basking in a cage and also raise ambients inside the cage a little. They are great for people who have one or two cages but it's probably not as energy efficient as flexwatt. Better than a bulb though because they are programmed to not get too hot and burn reptiles. Reptile Basics makes some good ones.
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Re: Radiant Heat Panels?

Postby ewertb » Wed Apr 06, 2016 10:18 am

I tried the Econoheat wall panel heater and it's a piece of rubbish. Only worked for one season before burning itself out and didn't manage to heat a room 3/4 of what they stated on the box. I switched to a 2000w oil heater and it works like a charm! A bit overkill though and can't run it on my 800w inverter during loadshedding as planned... Switched it out and running the cage spot heating pads on the inverter instead.

I'm planning on getting a theromo/hygrostat combo unit to 'automate' the room climate so will be looking at a smaller heating device (< 1200w) though.
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