Neal

So every year I come across posts where peoples thermostats malfunctioned or something happened that caused them to lose animals in their care. Stuff happens and sometimes it's just beyond your control, but there's things you can do that give you the best possible chance to prevent this from happening. I'll explain more into detail, then I'll post photos.

First and foremost, you need to have a good thermostat. I get that the $30 thermostat is tempting, but these thermostats break and often and when they do it's wide open. That means the heating that you use will get as hot as it will get. Some good thermostats are herpstat, vivarium electronics, helix and I'm sure they others but these are the ones I'm familiar with. When they fail, and it's super rare, it cuts the power. I don't think I've seen a post where one of these ever got stuck open. If that thermostat fails and kills your animal then you've lost more than a cheap thermostat.

I keep a camera in my room that I can pull up anytime or anywhere as long as I have a cellphone signal. I can review footage if I forget to log when I fed the animal or anything. Here is a screenshot from the cell phone app:


Next I have a smart powerstrip which is connected to my wifi that I can see what plugs are on, control what time they go on and off(because I run a day/night setup). I can also tell how much wattage each plug is pulling so I know if a light is out. Also if for some reason my house a/c system failed during summer, I can control just simply turn the power off to the plugs. This has happened when my system wouldn't come on because of a leak and if I wasn't able to turn the heating off because it was 97 degrees outside with heat lights it would've easily cooked my animals. I got a notification that the temp in my room was higher than normal because I keep a system that monitors the temp in the room. Here are some screenshots of the smart power strip:





Next I have an smart thermostat in my home that I can control when the heat/air is on, what temps I want it to come on and if I leave or something and a cold front comes through where I need the heat I can control it from my phone, or whatever the case may be:


All in all what I have I consider an investment. In the event I don't keep snakes anymore, the camera can be used around the house or kept in the room. The smart wifi powerstrip I can use anywhere, or if you have kids you can control the ps4 and what not. I also have a router that I can control everything from my phone, so if I want to pause internet access to a device I can, or setup restrictions, a time frame they can use it or what not. Also having a smart thermostat for the home means I don't have to worry about anybody adjusting the temperature. I lock it so that it can only be controlled via the app on my phone.