Keeping temps down in summer?

[Snabybabies]

Hey all!

First post here and first time BP owner. I've had my spider about two months now and had a bit of trouble with heating to begin with (as is the age old tale we all know). I decided to stick with a 65W heat lamp as it kept temps beautifully in late spring-early summer (86F hot, 91F basking, 80F~ cool). Humidity is of course a bummer (35-50% between mists, naturally rises a bit toward night) in a 20g glass Viv but manageable with a simple towel over half the tank.

So summer hit like a brick here in New England and temps are getting to 90F regularly. So my question is, how do you keep temps DOWN in the summer while still providing a proper heat gradient?? I've searched for a while but it seems the only threads I can find are how to lessen the chance of a temp spike, not how to lower a constant high temp would switching to a UTH work? I have one, but have not wanted to risk it without setting up his thermostat first and elevating his tank to allow air passage underneath. Would this be better to keep temps lower than a heat lamp? My BP is eating every 5 days like a champ, even with this past week having wonky high temps. I'd just really like to nail down a very consistent environment for him.

Thank you!!

[piedlover79]

Do not set up a UTH without a thermostat under any conditions. With the heat in the 90's I would just turn off the bulb and offer them a bowl of water large enough to curl up in if they need a cool down. I have mine in racks with a thermostat and when it is hot like this the UTH on the rack system simply don't turn the heat on.

[melcvt00]

Is your AC turned on??

[Snabybabies]

Do not set up a UTH without a thermostat under any conditions. With the heat in the 90's I would just turn off the bulb and offer them a bowl of water large enough to curl up in if they need a cool down. I have mine in racks with a thermostat and when it is hot like this the UTH on the rack system simply don't turn the heat on.

So it is okay to turn off the heat source altogether? I made the mistake of using the UTH heating without a thermostat once and came home to find the tank at 115F (only raises the temps by 5 degrees my arse!), ripped the thing off the tank and haven't used it since. Learned my lesson that day running around like a chicken with its head cut off prepping a water bowl for him to cool down in.

[Snabybabies]

Is your AC turned on??

No, there's no AC in my hundred year old apartment might get a few window ACs (I'm sure that's not their proper name lol, sorry), do you normally have the AC going? Would you recommend keeping the heating as you would in a cooler season in that case?

[Alexio]

Just for some fast numbers here the cost of a good thermostat is around 100$. The cost of an AC needed to cool one 14x16 room 300$. The cost to run the AC for say 4 months would be probably 30 a month in electricity.
The cost of running a half power 15 watt heat mat? If you ran the mat at 7 watts per hour 24 hours a day it's 168 watts per day. Your using a 65 watt heat lamp for lets assume a 12 hour day night cycle. 780 watts per day in electricity from only the bulb.

The thermostat probe will do all the temperature adjusting for you so if the temps get higher or lower it can raise /lower the temp of the heat mat.
Some people just use ambient room temps and don't bother so much with a gradient or heat sources.
I'm not sure but I believe they shoot for temps in the 85-87 range?


Sent from my Z987 using Tapatalk

[Snabybabies]

Just for some fast numbers here the cost of a good thermostat is around 100$. The cost of an AC needed to cool one 14x16 room 300$. The cost to run the AC for say 4 months would be probably 30 a month in electricity.
The cost of running a half power 15 watt heat mat? If you ran the mat at 7 watts per hour 24 hours a day it's 168 watts per day. Your using a 65 watt heat lamp for lets assume a 12 hour day night cycle. 780 watts per day in electricity from only the bulb.

The thermostat probe will do all the temperature adjusting for you so if the temps get higher or lower it can raise /lower the temp of the heat mat.
Some people just use ambient room temps and don't bother so much with a gradient or heat sources.
I'm not sure but I believe they shoot for temps in the 85-87 range?


Sent from my Z987 using Tapatalk

To run the UTH at half power (mine is 16w) with the thermostat would I need a rheostat hooked up to it as well? (Sorry, newb here). My tstat is just an on/off basic model, if I end up buying another bp I will upgrade to a proportional Spyder Robotics, which I've heard would be best. I've also heard bp owners swear UTHs are the devil though so I wanted to get something less costly incase I stuck with the heat lamp lol (apparently I didn't think of summer and having to manually turn the light off and on all day during peak temp times). Right now I'm just using ambient air as its 93F outside, his tank is holding pretty steady at 87F. Would you recommend I set the tstat temp lower than normal since it's not proportional incase of natural summer temp spikes?

Thank you all for your advice!!

[bcr229]

There is nothing wrong with using a UTH as long as it is regulated by a thermostat. People get into trouble with them and end up with burned snakes because they get their first snake, a fish tank, a heat pad, and think that's all they need because the minimum wage big box store employee who is scared to hold the ball python didn't know any better. I'm rather surprised that pet stores don't push t-stats every time someone purchases a UTH but that would require employee training.

If your landlord won't let you install a window A/C unit then you can always make "redneck AC" - fill some empty plastic soda bottles 2/3 full with water and lay them on their sides in the freezer. Don't fill them up all the way or they'll burst. Then just put the bottle in front of a fan during the hottest part of the day to create a cool breeze.