PVC cage heat with UTH / Radiant Heat Panel or BOTH? Cool room.

I am wanting to add some larger snakes to my collection and want to get some 47x23x12 PVC cages from Repi-Racks to house them. These cages will be in my guest room/snake room so I do not heat the room with a free standing heater so the room is not overly hot for guest. Not that I have to many, I think the snakes help keep them away. I have the air vent closed and the temps are in the low 70's throughout the day in the summer.

Being that I have a cooler "snake room" than most I have a feeling that I will need a little bit of heat added if I only run a UTH. So to the question.

How to heat the cages? Can those of you that use PVC cages tell me what you find is the best method of heating the cages thinking of my situation of having a cooler room. Should I use a UTH, Radiant Heat Panel, or Both? Being that I have a cooler room and knowing that in the winter it will be alittle colder I was thinking having both set up would be good in the event I need more heat. Over prepare. Better to have it and not need it line of thought.

Also I was wondering how yall have set up your cages if you do use both. Meaning, UTH on one side and RHP over head of it, UTH on one side and RHP centered in cage, or UTH on one side and the RHP on the cool side? I was thinking that the best option for ME is having a UTH as a hot spot and use the RHP to boost the ambient temps as needed. How would yall set this this up?

I thought of using tubs and want to go the cage route for this project.

I think you should have a UTH too because if it is cold out the snake will want to curl up and be warm, probably on a heat source, and, if it is warmer you can turn off the light. I think it is easier that way.

Any PVC users up yet?

I was wondering the same thing. Can someone chime in on this?

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My room can hit mid 60's. I have both an RHP and flexwatt. The Rhp helps keep the ambient temps in the 80's while the flexwatt keeps his hotspot at around 90.

My enclosure is custom built but I had to use a RHP and Flexwatt for heating. I have a glass panel on he bottom but the rest of the enclosure is PVC. So I would assume you will need to use Flexwatt for your warm side and RHP for ambients :) Works great for me no matter the temp of the room 65-78 my temps stay a constant 80.1 and 89.9 in my enclosure. Only issue I had was buying a T-stat that would control both heat sources:P

Repti-Racks emailed me back this morning. They told me that they do not sell any RHP but pointed me in the right direction by suggesting Pro Products. I can have the RHP drop shipped to Repti-Racks and they will install them for no charge. That way it just plug and play.

I'm running into ambient temp issues in my PVC enclosure using just flexwatt. I have a radiant heat panel ready, just need to go pick up my herpstat2 at the end of the week and I'll get back to you with results, hopefully have an improvement from 74-75 average ambient.

Here's the setup as of today, cluttered it up with some plants and his old hides. http://img.tapatalk.com/189601e3-10ec-c205.jpg

I use my herpstat 2 for my flexwatt and rhp. Was a bigger expense, but it's so awesome!

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Originally Posted by Bobbafett

My room can hit mid 60's. I have both an RHP and flexwatt. The Rhp helps keep the ambient temps in the 80's while the flexwatt keeps his hotspot at around 90.

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What size enclosure do you have? I'm trying to decide what wattage of RHP to use. I plan on using flex watt for belly heat, but maintaining ambient temps are definitely an issue for my house. I'm drawing up designs for a 4x2x3 (lwh), but i'm undecided between the 40 watt and 80 watt models from reptile basics.

This is my first build so I have a more related questions, if you have the time.