RHP Purchase & Installation

[ckuhn003]

Hello ....

I think I'm going to pull the plug and purchase an RHP (50watt) for my pvc enclosure (3x1x1). I was orginally going to wait and upgrade my enclosure to a bigger size but not sure when that will take place.

I'm over worrying about making sure my ambients are correct and my indoor heating wall unit is running constantly at 80 degrees.

It sounds like installation is fairly easy but what about placement? I'm told the 50watt RHP will fit w/ my current LED lights but should I move it all the way to my hot side?

How easy it is to get all the temps dialed in? I have two UTHs but Proproducts is telling me I shouldn't need them anymore.

It seems like there are a lot of variables. Curious about other's experiences.

Thanks!

[L.West]

Yes, place the RHP to the far side on the hot side. Leave at least 3 inches from each wall. They should touch the side walls. How big is your enclosure?? What are the measurements of the your RHP in inches. You basically want the RHP to heat only half the tank especially if you are heating your room to 80 to begin with. You will need a thermostat to connect to the RHP. Set you desired temp and check the surface temps with a temp gun to tweek it to be exactly the temp you want.

I have several large RHP's and love them. I never you belling heat in my PVC enclosures.

[SDA]

RHPs are very light and easy to install. They often come with crews that you just screw into the top of the enclosure. The lightweight aspect means they won't pull away but if you are concerned there are always bolts and nuts you can use to secure it down (honestly not needed). The hardest part for some people is the snapping in the plug to the power cord. It often comes with instructions and really it is something you just put the cord in and squeeze shut. Once you see it, it becomes really easy to do.

I am going ot go off the common placement and one that Bob at pro - products recommends. You place the RHP on the warm side of the tank and place the probe of the thermostat on the cool side. You can either string the probe through the vents and down the side or drill a hole near the bottom and place it there. You want it slightly above hte floor to prevent the snake form sitting on it or relieving itself on the probe. It is fine to have it dangling down on the side of the tank.

What you do is dial in the temps so the cool side is where you want it. The idea is then the warm side will get to the temp you want and the cool side will be the ambient you want. You might need to adjust it to find the best compromise between hot and cool side and that is best adjusted using an infrared temp gun to read temps and adjusting the thermostat to where you need it.

you really would not need the UTHs any longer but if it gets really cold in the winter you might want to keep the warm side one for belly heat. It won't hurt anything and as long as you have it controlled via a thermostat it will not over cook your snake I would remove the one from the cool side or just unplug it.

You also should not have problems with the led if they are installed on the back side. you should be able to install the RHP more toward the front of the cage and it will still work as intended.


Good luck and as long as you have one of those IR temp guns to dial in temp reading on the thermostat, this won't be an issue.

[ckuhn003]

How big is your enclosure?? What are the measurements of the your RHP in inches. You basically want the RHP to heat only half the tank especially if you are heating your room to 80 to begin with. You will need a thermostat to connect to the RHP. Set you desired temp and check the surface temps with a temp gun to tweek it to be exactly the temp you want.

My enclosure is 36x12x12 and the recommended RHP is a 7" x 24" x 1" 50 watt panel. Since it’s my basement I would like to cut back on running the heat. My wife has been scratching her head about having to run the heat at a constant 80 just for one little snake

I am going to go off the common placement and one that Bob at pro - products recommends. You place the RHP on the warm side of the tank and place the probe of the thermostat on the cool side. You can either string the probe through the vents and down the side or drill a hole near the bottom and place it there. You want it slightly above the floor to prevent the snake form sitting on it or relieving itself on the probe. It is fine to have it dangling down on the side of the tank.

What you do is dial in the temps so the cool side is where you want it. The idea is then the warm side will get to the temp you want and the cool side will be the ambient you want. You might need to adjust it to find the best compromise between hot and cool side and that is best adjusted using an infrared temp gun to read temps and adjusting the thermostat to where you need it.

You really would not need the UTHs any longer but if it gets really cold in the winter you might want to keep the warm side one for belly heat. It won't hurt anything and as long as you have it controlled via a thermostat it will not overcook your snake [IMG]file:///C:\Users\043881\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.gif[/IMG] I would remove the one from the cool side or just unplug it.

You also should not have problems with the led if they are installed on the back side. you should be able to install the RHP more toward the front of the cage and it will still work as intended.

Good luck and as long as you have one of those IR temp guns to dial in temp reading on the thermostat, this won't be an issue.

Awesome! Exactly what I was looking for! I spent some time getting my temps right ‘before’ I purchased my snake so now that I have one and thinking about an RHP, I want to make sure I can dial in these temps in a ‘speedy manner’ and w/o struggle. So would I try and dial in an ambient temp on the cool side around 79-80 and assume the hot side would be the right temp?
Bob also mentioned adding some foil faced insulation under the cage to help avoid heat loss. Seems like a good idea.

[SDA]

My tip and I have it now for 3 snakes and it works amazing is styrofoam insulation under the tank. You can get styrofoam from like a craft store, home depot or lowes for real cheap. I ended up with I think 5 strips that worked perfect. It was like $8 or so and looks just like normal styrofoam.

Just set the enclosure on the styrofoam and that's all you need to do. You can take a razor blade to cut the excess off easy.

Now as far as the temp on the cool side. That might be dependent on what you get the hot side to be. Upper 70s should be a fine target range so long as the hot side doesn't get above 90ish. This is why I recommend a temp gun, you can quickly get readings on all sides and dial it into what you want.

As it was mentioned, offset the RHP by about 3 inches from the hot side wall, drape the probe on the cool side wall and aim for a target probe temp of 76-77. Remember the ambient will be somewhere between that range and so upper 70s is fine for the cool wall. I would start setting the thermostat there (76) and adjust as needed to get the target of 90-92 on the warm side surface and above 75 on the cool side. Might need to play with the temps a bit but give it like 15-20 minutes between adjustments to reach temp.

[ckuhn003]

My tip and I have it now for 3 snakes and it works amazing is styrofoam insulation under the tank. You can get styrofoam from like a craft store, home depot or lowes for real cheap. I ended up with I think 5 strips that worked perfect. It was like $8 or so and looks just like normal styrofoam.

Just set the enclosure on the styrofoam and that's all you need to do. You can take a razor blade to cut the excess off easy.

Now as far as the temp on the cool side. That might be dependent on what you get the hot side to be. Upper 70s should be a fine target range so long as the hot side doesn't get above 90ish. This is why I recommend a temp gun, you can quickly get readings on all sides and dial it into what you want.

As it was mentioned, offset the RHP by about 3 inches from the hot side wall, drape the probe on the cool side wall and aim for a target probe temp of 76-77. Remember the ambient will be somewhere between that range and so upper 70s is fine for the cool wall. I would start setting the thermostat there (76) and adjust as needed to get the target of 90-92 on the warm side surface and above 75 on the cool side. Might need to play with the temps a bit but give it like 15-20 minutes between adjustments to reach temp.

Great! Much appreciated responses SDA. I just ordered the RHP (should take 2-3 weeks to arrive). Now if I can just get my BP to eat his 1st Rat Pup, I'll be a happy BP owner!

[SDA]

Crossing my snake loving fingers for rat pup devouring!

[ckuhn003]

My tip and I have it now for 3 snakes and it works amazing is styrofoam insulation under the tank. You can get styrofoam from like a craft store, home depot or lowes for real cheap. I ended up with I think 5 strips that worked perfect. It was like $8 or so and looks just like normal styrofoam.

Just set the enclosure on the styrofoam and that's all you need to do. You can take a razor blade to cut the excess off easy.

Now as far as the temp on the cool side. That might be dependent on what you get the hot side to be. Upper 70s should be a fine target range so long as the hot side doesn't get above 90ish. This is why I recommend a temp gun, you can quickly get readings on all sides and dial it into what you want.

As it was mentioned, offset the RHP by about 3 inches from the hot side wall, drape the probe on the cool side wall and aim for a target probe temp of 76-77. Remember the ambient will be somewhere between that range and so upper 70s is fine for the cool wall. I would start setting the thermostat there (76) and adjust as needed to get the target of 90-92 on the warm side surface and above 75 on the cool side. Might need to play with the temps a bit but give it like 15-20 minutes between adjustments to reach temp.

Here's a picture that drew up to make sure I'm looking at this correctly when I install my RHP.



If I aim for the ambient on the cool side to be 76-77, will the surface temp under the cool side hide be higher or lower. I'm currently dialed in around the low 80s (using the 2nd UTH which I'll disconnect when RHP arrives)

I'm not sure how to handle my existing warm side UTH. I'm leaning on keeping it installed since I have the Herpstat2. Will the existence of the RHP cause me to adjust the current thermostat setting of the UTH?

Should I be measuring the ambients on the warm side or is the cool side measurements sufficient?

Sorry for all the questions. I just want to avoid scrambling around when I'm installing and my BP is hanging out.






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SDA]

Nothing outside of the RHP will be warmed directly by radiation from the RHP. The limited airflow of a PVC enclosure will allow some of the ambient air to increase from the heat of the surface items radiating back up and thus heating the ambient air. The theory is that by the time it gets to the cool side the air is still warm enough to keep it at the temp you want. Now if your house is an igloo and freezing it will be harder to get these temps perfect.

So long as the cool hide is in the temp range of what you want I would ignore the cold wall temp. You keep the cool hide off the wall and it buffers then against getting too cold. So measure the temp of hte hide, not the wall on the cold side.

In short the heat from the RHP hitting the warm side and bouncing back up SHOULD radiate enough in a PVC enclosure to keep the cool side to temp. Enough people run their RHPs and thermostat probes like this that is is a proven technique. All you have to do is fiddle with the thermostat control temp to get it where you want it then forget it

For the UTH set it so the inside floor temp gets to 90-91 degrees and set it to pulse proportional not dimming and you will be fine. I have never had to monkey with the UTH temp once I set it and read the inside floor temp.

[ckuhn003]

Nothing outside of the RHP will be warmed directly by radiation from the RHP. The limited airflow of a PVC enclosure will allow some of the ambient air to increase from the heat of the surface items radiating back up and thus heating the ambient air.

So obviously the tops of the hide will absorb heat so will I be able to match the surface temps underneath the hide that I'm able to achieve using my UTHs??

So long as the cool hide is in the temp range of what you want I would ignore the cold wall temp. You keep the cool hide off the wall and it buffers then against getting too cold. So measure the temp of the hide, not the wall on the cold side.

I think I’m a little unsure what you mean by the cold wall and ignoring its temp. In my current setup, I only monitor the floor temps on both sides and the ambient which is measured by a temp probe dangling from the cool side. Is the cold wall the side wall opposite where the RHP is installed and/if so I probably wouldn’t be taking a temp of the wall.

For the UTH set it so the inside floor temp gets to 90-91 degrees and set it to pulse proportional not dimming and you will be fine. I have never had to monkey with the UTH temp once I set it and read the inside floor temp.

I’ve always had mine set to dimming. I guess partly because the instructions say in 'most cases this is the best performing mode of control'. Maybe I’m not quite sure what the difference is. Is it important that I change and if so, should I change for both channels?