Another Heating Question

Hello, I have two racks, one rack with 41 qt tubs (with Herpstat1 thermostat and heat cable) and the other with 28 qt tubs (with Vivarium Electronic and 3" flexwatt heat tape but I should get the Herpstat1 tomorrow).

I'm curious, what is the difference in degrees?

On my 41 qt tub rack, I get about 6 degrees difference. I use paper towel as substrate and I put two layers of paper towel. Should I just use one?

With the 28 qt tub, I have it set on 98 degrees to get 91. That's 7 degrees difference. Normal?

What's the temperature in the room? I just got my first rack and my thermostat was about where your smaller rack was because the room wasn't warm. When I had my bearded dragon lights on during the day and the room temp was in the 80s I had to turn the thermostat down.

The room is at 72 degrees right now but it will go down to maybe 65, 60 overnight.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by digizure

The room is at 72 degrees right now but it will go down to maybe 65, 60 overnight.

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I couldn't do it.. I'd freeze to death! I've gotten so use to living with reptiles that if my house drops below 74 at any time of the year I feel like I'm going to have frost bite! Lol

Had a space heater on in my room last night even though the house furnace is set to 74, and my sons dad comes in to wake me up and freaks out about how hot it is. I'm cuddled up under the covers feeling juuuuuussst fine!

I'm in San Diego so it doesn't get that cold here. :)

I'm a little frustrated because the temp for each tub isn't the same. Any ideas why that might be? I just want my pythons to get 91 degrees in the hot spot during the day and 82 degrees at night.

Where have you placed the probes for the thermostats? They should be taped directly on the heat source. For the rack with the flexwatt tape a probe directly on the heat tape in an area where the tub in that slot won't hit it. If its a pre made rack it should have grooves and or slots in the back going through to the inside back of one of the tub slots just for probe placement.

For the rack with the heat cable tape the probe directly to the cable.

Then you have to consider that there will be a difference between what you have it set at and what the hot spot inside that section of tub is. The heat is being diffused by the amount of material it has to travel through so you set the thermostat at whatever you need to set at to get the required readings inside the tub.

Those internal readings should also be taken with a probed thermometer or a temp gun in order to be sure you're getting accurate readings within a couple degrees.

I have the probe taped inside the tub, right over the heat tape. I don't think I should take the probe out of the tub because I want to know what the degree is inside the tub.

The rack is an open rack system with no sides but it is placed against the wall.

Another thing, I have the top rack at 88 degrees and the bottom rack at 82 degrees. How do I regulate this? Thanks.

You're going to have issues until you put the probe for the thermostat that controls the heat directly on the heat. You have to consider the fact that the plastic insulates and diffuses the heat. By the time it's hot enough for the probe (if it's inside the tub over the heat) to pick up the temperature that you want it it to be at, the thermostat is reading a much higher amount because that heat has had to travel through the plastic.

Then think about the many degrees of difference you're going to have as it cycles down and then back up because of that issue. Instead of the probe being able to keep the heat at one consistent temperature, it will constantly raise and lower the amount of power, or if it's an on/off thermostat it will be constantly be turning on and off with many degrees variance between because it has to pass through all that plastic..

Then it takes the plastic slightly longer to cool down even when the actual heat tape has cooled down a bit moreso, which means it will take longer to heat up again. Do you understand the issue here?

It's a dangerous issue, and a costly one considering the extra power being used to compensate for the heat being diffused through plastic before its probe picks up the proper temp and turns it off or cycles it down. This will also wear out your thermostat quicker..


I'm telling you, you need to put the thermostat probe DIRECTLY on the heat source. Then put a probe for a thermometer directly on the plastic inside the tub over the heat source. Set the thermostat to where it needs to be to maintain the internal hot spot that you require as being read by the thermometer probe inside the tub.

As for having no sides, you can easily insulate it to help regulate the temperature and help the thermostat function easier by putting those thin pink sheets of insulation on the sides. You can pick them up at any home depot type store. Have them cut to fit and just tape them on. You can paint them to match the rack first if you like.