Heating through Melamine

While I originally thought getting belly heat through a melamine enclosure (UTH directly under the wood) was a hopeless endeavor I seem to be hearing quite the contrary from most of the people I ask. Here is my set up which I have all the "parts" for laid out in the garage:

2x4x1 (depth, length, height) melamine enclosure, sliding glass front. I was planning to heat it with a 40Watt RHP and two 11x17 UTH's under the cage. RHP for ambients, UTH for the "myth" based digestive aid for my BP. This melamine is 3/4" thick, will those UTH's be completely useless from the outside? If so, should I bump up to an 80Watt RHP and would that alone get the job done? I don't want to deal with tiling the inside of the cage. Sounds like a pain in the ass, especially if you ever need to replace the UTH's... dear lord what a project that would be :rolleyes:.

PS- If I decide to go with just the RHP I'll be dealing with Pro-products :).

Thanks,
Fatal

I heat a 36x30x14 with a 40 watt rhp with zero problem so unless your glass passes that much heat I don't think you'd need to (I have a framed 1/4 plexi door). Call pro-products and they can take information about your cage and put it in their calculator to tell you what wattage you need.

I use 80 watts in my 4x2x1 pvc cages, and they work perfectly. I'm sure that melamine would do an even better job of holding heat. Mine comes from Reptile Basics, and I am very happy with them, and their prices.

How well do they create a heat gradient? My house is always between 66-68 degrees and so having a UTH on each side to keep it at 80-90 was really a necessity. Will I be able to achieve the same effect with an RHP by merely positioning it off to one side more than the other?

ALso, I take it that you guys believe a UTH on melamine is worthless?

Cheers,
Fatal

I believe if you use the correct RHP, UTH are worthless.