Cage temps fluctuating.. questions

I recently bought an RBI 3x2x1 plastic cage with a 80w radiant heat panel. Have a herpstat which is set to 90 degrees. When the temperature in my house is at about 70, the temps inside of the cage are good (92 hot hide, 81 cool hide, ambient 82). However, the temps in the house fluctuate quite a bit during the day and it causes the temps in the cage to fluctuate as well. So when it gets really warm in the house the temps in the cage tend to change to like 89 hot hide, up to 87 cool hide, and up to 87 ambient .
Is 87 max temp too hot for the cool hide to be for a few hours a day? Is there anything I can do to try to keep temps in the cage more stable(other than air condition the house during the day)? There is no snake in the cage yet by the way. Thanks

Hi,

It might be a good idea to shoiw us the layout of the enclosure with the locations and trpes of all the gauges and probes.

What kind of thermometers are you using etc?


dr del

I'm using two digital thermometers. One is an Acurite the other is a extech. Probes for these are located in the hides on the top of the substrate. They seem pretty accurate. Also have a temp gun. The probe for the herpstat comes in through a rear vent hole and under the RHP. It hangs down to about 2 inches above the aspen substrate.
I have tried playing around with the probe locations and the hide locations. It doesn't seem to make much of a difference.
The thing is that it gets so warm in the house during the day (up to like 82-85) that it just effects the gradient too much. Temps are perfect at night and in the morning when it's about 70 degrees in my house. But when my house warms up, the hot hide temp actually lowers from 92 to about 89 and the cool hide temp rises to 84-87. Not really sure if I can do anything at this point other than air condition the house (which is not really an option for me).
So are these temp variants unacceptable? From 89-93 in the hot hide, 80-87 in the cool hide? Cool side is only above 83 for a few hours a day.

The thermostat probe does not ever go into a enclosure, it goes against the UTH under the enclosure.
Until you place it there you won't get steady temps.

Temperatures taken with the probe are taken under the substrate where the snake might get to.
The hot spot under the substrate should be 90 to 92

Hi,

He's not using a UTH.

I can't decide if insulating the enclosure would stabilise the temps or if you actually want to increase the ventilation to stop the cool end heating up that much. :confused:

It's hard to be certain what is actually happening but I think the herpstat is doing its job but the ambient heat built up in the viv isn't dispersing fast enough for that to keep the cool end stable.

Anyone else have any input on this?


dr del

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dr del

Hi,

He's not using a UTH.


dr del

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Doh, radiant heat panel...:oops: