New Reptile Room in basement - Looking for ideas

[TrpnBils]

My wife and I are in the process of buying our first house (we're renting it now) and would like to convert part of the basement to our snake room once the house is ours. Right now we keep and/or breed several species including green tree pythons, ball pythons, macklots pythons, rainbow boas, corn snakes, and a random burm, redtail boa, and honduran milk snake..... so almost all tropical stuff.

The current reptile room is a 1st floor bedroom at the corner of the house. We don't heat the room much in the winter because of excess heat from each of the cages (use mostly radiant heat panels and flexwatt). The room also has two large windows which allow us not to have to use additional lighting.

The new reptile room will be in the basement (see attached picture) and is about 370 sqft. The room is drywalled, although we might put on an additional insulated layer because I think it's just drywall on top of cement block right now, so that will reduce the square footage a little. The floor is concrete, the only windows are small "window well" type windows on half of the one wall up near the ceiling, and there is electric baseboard heat along one wall.

We thrown around a few ideas: We want to put some counters/cabinets in one corner (lower right corner of the picture). We'd like to have a sink there, but it would be a more in-depth part of the project because there's no nearby water lines or drains (on the other side of that wall is a hallway, and on the other side of that hallway, directly across from where the counters would be, is a bathroom so there is a small sink there at least).

Here are my concerns at this point:

Heat: Because it's below ground level, it gets cold down there. It might help shield against the cold wind in the winter, but even in summer it's cold down there. I know it'll heat up a little once we put in the cages with their heaters, but it won't make up for all of the heat deficit. If the cage heaters are on all day long it's going to dry the cages out bigtime too...

Light: Because there are only a couple of small windows, it's pretty dark down there. The obvious solution is to leave the room lights on during the day, but we'd like to come up with something that's energy efficient so we don't run our electric bill up real high if we don't have to. If there was some way to do some kind of solar-supplemented lighting and/or heating for the room I'd be all for that in the long run, but I don't know how feasible that is at this point in the project.

Humidity: It's damp just like most basements, but I'd be with the cool air and the possibility the heaters will be on a whole lot I'm not sure how stable the humidity will be.

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Feel free to chime in here and shoot me some ideas or concerns you would have if doing this project. I've heard mixed opinions on basement reptile rooms so I'd like to be educated on this before we really start to move on it. If it was your room, what would you do?

[The Serpent Merchant]

I would use 2 oil filled heaters to increase the temperature of the room.

I would look into LED lighting as they used very little power

These work great (high upfront cost, but cost almost nothing to run)

http://www.earthled.com/earthpar-led-par-lighting.html

[TrpnBils]

Yeah we do have a single oil filled radiator that we've used in the past that I figured we'd probably end up using again. I'm assuming it's far more efficient to run either one or two of those rather than a 10ft baseboard heater that's down there right now.

[coldbloodaddict]

You will definitely need to take the drywall down if it's right on the Block and then and frame the walls...That will be horrible once you have snakes in there!

If you insulate the room well (use a very high rating) you shouldn't need extra room heat too often...Oil Filled style heaters are very expensive to operate and suck the humidity out of the room...You should look into this type of heater if you do need to run one...
http://edenpureus.us/?gclid=CPbgpMDh4q8CFUhl7AodanGgEg

I would add fluorescent lights for when you are in there...No need to run them when your not in there if you don't want to...They don't need a light cycle.

You will need to address the humidity issues as you cross that bridge...It's hard to say what it will be like until you get everything in there...

I would also look into a really good air purifier so you don't have stale air sitting in the room...I like Oreck, but there are plenty of others...Just make sure you get one with washable filters, or that will get expensive.
http://www.oreck.com/Air-Purifiers?k...FQif7QodtVNRzg

[TrpnBils]

I would add fluorescent lights for when you are in there...No need to run them when your not in there if you don't want to...They don't need a light cycle.

I like that heater, but I don't know how I feel about the statement above. Right now it's pretty darn dark in there during even bright and sunny days because of the size/placement of the windows. I wouldn't feel comfortable at all not giving them any supplemental lighting (even from just within the room...I have no desire to light every individual enclosure). Light cycles seem to be mentioned in almost every serious reference related to snake care that I have right now, and even in our breeding projects and ones that I've done in professional settings have included some change in photoperiod during the prebreeding cycles.

Definitely going to frame the walls and insulate well beforehand though, and we have to put in some more outlets... only 3 or 4 in the whole room!

[DakotaB]

Hey you honestly dont need any light or supplemented heating. Just insulate the room make sure the temp is kept at 85 in the room. And thats it. Most people will say make sure you have them on a 12 hour light cycle. And one end of there enclosure needs to be 85 the other 90. But its not needed. It has been proven that even keepin them in pitch black for 24/7 (besides the time you go into the room) and just keeping the ambient temp at 85 is all that is required. I know alot of people who do it this way.

Im not sayin this to piss anyone off or anything but if your trying to find a simple and cost effective way of doing this there it is. But in the end do what makes you happy. Good Luck.

[Rob]

Bps don't require any special lighting. My snake room is my basement as well, so I had the same issue with heat. I just have a space heater near my racks and that keeps the ambient temp perfect. As for the humidity the basement is fairly humid already, but ill mist if the tubs drop below 50%.

[TrpnBils]

Ok - so how about basic ideas for the room? What would you guys put in your snake rooms, or what have you put in your snake rooms that you feel you couldn't do without?

[Mike41793]

Ok - so how about basic ideas for the room? What would you guys put in your snake rooms, or what have you put in your snake rooms that you feel you couldn't do without?

Snakes

Haha jk. Maybe a stereo or a small flatscreen mounted up in the corner of the room. Just to give you some background noise while cleaning/ feeding. Also maybe a couch or chair to sit down in. And plenty of countertop space lol!

[suzuki4life]

Mine is in the basement as well..

Insulating the walls is not as necessary as insulating the floor and ceiling is.

Your room should have a raised floor of 2" foam board with 3/4" plywood over it...then insulate your ceiling. If you do not do this. YOU WILL HAVE AN EXTREME TEMPERATURE GRADIENT. Before insulating I had a floor temp for 69 and a ceiling temp of 92. After insulating, floor temps of 82 and ceiling temp of 92.

You can also look into radiant floor heat (which many DIY guys have improvised and succeed with simple setups)