Keeping ambient temps up

After talking with some people on this site and doing a little research I'm thinking about getting an Animal Plastics T8 for my bp. I figured I'd buy it with the flexwatt and just hook that up to a thermostat. I happen to live in an extremely variable climate (MI) and the temp of my apartment fluctuate a lot.

I'm trying to find a relatively cheap way of keeping the temps up on the cool side during the cooler months. Any ideas? What about a standard uth with a dimmer, I can adjust it based on the seasons. There is also an option to get a circular screen put in the top so I could put a small lamp, but it seems like that would be bad for humidity.

Also any suggestions on substrate? I really like the natural look, I only have a couple snakes and don't mind the extra time I put in for cleaning. It sounds like thin substrates work best for these, but I would rather not have a substrate like newspaper.

Thanks for the advice! Just trying to get it right :)

You have a few options. What I did here in SoCal for mine while I had to house them in the garage, was I had a 250 watt red bulb just pointed in the corner towards the tubs. It didn't significantly heat a particular cage, as it was a good 2 or 3 feet away from all of them, but it DID heat up that corner of the garage to about the low to mid 70s, which was much better than the 50s and 60s that was the case for the rest of the garage.

In addition, you can also cover the rack system to insulate it. Tape together some black trash bags in an extra large sheet, and then hang that around the tubs. This will probably be more energy efficient than the lightbulb idea, and much less of a potential fire hazard.

-Jen

Might want to look into Radiant Heat Panels. Theyre hard to regulate though in my experience and optimally, you would want another thermostat for it. Ive used the one by Pro-Products before and Ive also heard good things about the Reptiles Basics one.

Radiant Heat panels are the way to go.

If you haven't already read this I suggest that you do:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...With-Pictures!

AS for Substrate I use Corrugated wrap. it looks better than newspaper but is just as easy to clean.

*Not my Image*

[IMG]http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0230.jpg[/IMG]

Whatever you use it needs to be as thin as possible no thicker than 1/2". (unless you ditch the Flexwatt and just use a radiant Heat Panel)

Also to the other people posting an this thread the Animal Plastics T8 is not a rack. it is a 48" x 24" x 12" PVC cage

I like to use an oil space heater with a built in thermostat. The thermostats are not always as accurate as you would like them to be, but you just have to find what reading on your heater thermostat matches what you want the ambient to be. Using a digital thermometer for the ambient temps will help you achieve this.

Oil filled heaters don't do much good with PVC cages (they help in really really cold rooms) but because the T8 is made from 1/2" PVC the heat from oil filled heaters has a hard time getting into the cage.

A Radiant Heat Pannel works much better because it is mounted inside the cage (also uses a significantly less amount of power than an oil file heater.