Electricity: tank vs. rack

[pitbulls4me]

Hello all,

I have 3 ball pythons I keep in tanks (a 10 gallon, a 20 gallon long and a 40 gallon breeder) they all have UTH to go with the size tanks, and heat lamps to keep the ambient temperatures higher. One tank is on a Ranco thermostat. I tried hooking the others to it as well but the pads in the tanks ranged in different temperatures.

So my question is do you think you use less electricity having the snakes in a rack system or in the tanks? And can my Ranco thermostat handle a rack system with 3 or 4 shelves with Flexwatt?

Thanks for any input

[Bruce Whitehead]

Tanks will always lose more heat.

Glass is a good conductor oF heat, so it is always going to try and achieve equilibrium with the external environment.

Tanks have higher ceilings as well... more room to heat (and increased surface area - more surface area, more heat loss).

And depending on what the top of your tank looks like, you are probably losing lots of heat through the top as well. Especially if you use a bulb.

Compare that to a tub, plastic is a poor conductor of heat, has a low ceiling and (usually) has less airflow.

Bruce

[RichsBallPythons]

Racks can save electricity if you have a stable room temp. If the room dont fluctuate a lot then a rack can save money over time. I dont know how much as i never used heat lamps or tanks for snakes. Only time i used tanks was when i was building my racks.

If you add the wattages up you can go from there on the savings and work in the room temp. Which will play a roll as in how much the heat turns on and off with the thermostat.

[pitbulls4me]

Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. We have done a lot to try and keep more heat in the tanks as all sides except the front are covered (top is covered by foil except for maybe 1/4 of it for the heat lamp, and the rest is covered with padded poster board). I guess I will start building a rack of some sort... now another question about tub size. I have 3 snakes, a 2300+ gram female and two that are about 700-800 grams. What size tubs for them?

Thanks again for the help

[mechnut450]

I got all my snakes in 41qt tubs they work for my frmy my hatchlnig( recent bought snakes all theway to my 1800+ gram snakes.

The only draw back I had on mine was I used too thin of a wood for the shelves and it bows( I placed braces but it only a temp fix I plan on getting some 1/2-3/4 board for the shelves this summer possible and start to replace them. I do liqid nail the flexwatt to the shelf to prevent pushing it around and all it works great test will be the removal of it later in case i need to reuse the flexwatt.