Snake rack bedding

[whispersinmyhead]

Does thicker bedding lower ambient temps in a closed rack? I have mine testing in my living room and I think when I added bedding I lost a couple degrees of ambient because I lowered the tstat temp because the hot spot got to warm. I am using a thin layer of aspen because it keeps humidity right at 50-55% so far with very little help from misting. I also like it for spot cleaning. I thought it would help insulate the tub but I think I am loosing heat because the heat tape isn't pushing out as much.

I am not sure if this makes sense. I have close to perfect temps. 78-92/93 is my range through my whole rack in a 72 degree room. Each tub has 14 1/4" holes for air exchange. I am just curious if anybody else found this or if I am just fussing for nothing?

Thanks for humouring me

[kitedemon]

Yes absolutely.

UTHs are radiant heat it is line of sight. This means in effect the floor of the tub is the heater for the tub especially when you account radient heat travels though air without heating it. The more substrate on the floor (the heat source) the more heat is held at the floor. As you know organic chips (aspen coco coir cyprus ect...) are good insulators even newspaper will make a difference. This is why it is difficult in holding ambient temps the UTH has little effect on them. All your planning has bought you 5ºF of ambient temps. It is not that much, in the end, it is enough but your room is not that cool (I call 68ºF normal above warm below cool )

I personally would like to see ambients a touch higher myself. 78 is fine but will your room hold 72 or higher and not dip below for long? This is my issue during the winter I have average of 68ºF with cool snaps dropping to 64-5ºF for a week or two. I plan for the cold snaps rather than the average.

[WtGreg]

Yes, it affects things, but one thing of importance is ambient temps in the room. The heat tape can go only so far, especially with factors like bedding changes and varying ambient temps. I personally feel ambient temps is more important to be in range as if your tape goes out, or thermostat for that matter, it will drop, and fast if your temps are low. Similarly, if not a thermostat but rheostat, this is even more important as the rheostat setup doesn't adjust, but that sounds like it is getting too detailed here.
My suggestion would be to move them to another room where you can keep the ambient temps up higher than they are, and keep them steady.

[whispersinmyhead]

Thanks guys. I would like to hit that 80 on all tubs but I will just make sure to keep ambients higher next winter. After all the awesome discussion in multiple threads and reading until my eyes were sore this worked out well. It duplicates what my cage was doing which was the goal.

Next winter I am going to be reconnecting a heating duct we discovered was disconnected to that room. This is a new house to us as we just moved. I have a gas fire place in that room but I only set it low because if it kicked in just a little it left the rest of the house very cool. No good for my father in law living in the basement apartment. I have options for the rack if that room does become to problematic. Now that we are settled in it makes things easier.

Unfortunately I don have a room I can dedicate for snakes or heat more becuase well there just isn't enough room. I know I am not the only one to have a point room rack. I may have to setup an oil filled space heater for the cooler months but I think we will have a constant 72-73 next winter instead of dipping to 68-70.

Thanks for all the help as usual. Over all the pros have out weighed the cons.

I took lots of pics. So I think I will add to the how to's. I know there are lots but this turned out really nice and has a good finnished look to it.