RHP and/or belly heat?

Ok, so I've decided to buy an AP T8 and have a newbie question. The unit I am getting will have a divider so that I can keep two BPs. I'm going to modify the divider so that I can centrally mount my Pro Heat RHP. Given that the T8 is only 12 high, do I need both the RHP and belly heat? I've read some threads that say you don't need both, but I've also read that BP's need belly heat to help with digestion. I'm not concerned about price (Flexwatt is not that expensive anyways), but want to make sure the setup is right.

Thanks in advance,

Eric

You don't need belly heat and you can just use 2x 40 watt RHPs, 1 on each side. No snake NEEDS belly heat to digest if the ambient temps are warm enough. I have never used belly heat on my 6ft BCI girl and I have had her since she was a 18" baby and she does just fine with a RHP in her Pro-Line HDPE cage.

Yep, no belly heat needed if your ambient temp is up to par. I personally keep my enclosures at 83.5 during the day and then do a night drop of 80 at night. The night drop isn't something that is necessary either. I'm just experimenting with night drops to see if it makes a difference or not.

I would mount the RHP panel either on one side or the other. That way you're creating a temperature gradient for the snake. A 80 watt RHP should be great for a T8.

I'm glad I seen this post as we are looking at getting the T10 for our female bee; we like the extra 3 inches of height for ease of cleaning.

So a RHP would be fine in the T10 as well without belly heat? We were looking at installing an 80W RHP in the T10 with belly heat but it sounds like this is not necessary.

Thanks!

You don't need both for sure only one heat source is needed. Both RHP and UTH are radiant heat sources so the work the same way, heating objects, just like the sun. Many RHP manufacturers suggest 12 inches from the face of the panel to the floor so a T8 is on the lowest installation possible.

RHPs are not the most efficient systems, they lose a lot of heat, to generate a hot spot on the floor of 90ºF mine has a surface of 130ºF my UTHs in the same thickness of PVCx to hold a 90ºF hot spot run 93ºF on the surface and then only are 11w compared to a 40w, so they use less power to do so. RHP excel at heating a perch and generating a horizontal and vertical gradient at the same time. A terrestrial gradient is great but remember you also have a vertical one so if the floor is 90º the top of the hide is hotter.

If you need to kick up ambient temps I believe there are more efficient, cheaper, and with less compromises methods of doing so. Heating objects to then heat the air seems a involved way of doing that just heating the air directly is easier. Fluorescent bulbs heat air , and the electronics associated with led strings also do. My suggestion is during your set up just use the lighting with no heat at all to see how much they heat the ambients (12hr white 12hr led night) you can add a RHP if needed but my experience the FL heats around 8-12º over the room my RHPs have only capped 3-4ºF over the room. (unless you stick the probe where the RHP will heat it directly... hardly ambient air temp then it is just a hot spot as it is directly influenced by the heater)

If this works it will save you money and power.


"Heating by radiant energy is observed every day, the warmth of the sunshine being the most commonly observed example. Radiant heating as a technology is more narrowly defined. It is the method of intentionally using the principles of radiant heat to transfer radiant energy from an emitting heat source to an object. Designs with radiant heating are seen as replacements for conventional convection heating as well as a way of supplying confined outdoor heating."

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Originally Posted by Stormy

I'm glad I seen this post as we are looking at getting the T10 for our female bee; we like the extra 3 inches of height for ease of cleaning.

So a RHP would be fine in the T10 as well without belly heat? We were looking at installing an 80W RHP in the T10 with belly heat but it sounds like this is not necessary.

Thanks!

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Yes an 80 watt will heat a T-10 easily. I'm using a Pro Products PH-3 which is their 65 watt in a Pro-Line 48x23x14 with a Herpstat 1 and I have no problem keeping it warm.

Since we live in Illinois and have terribly cold winters we're looking at being able to keep ambiant air temps up; we keep our house at 72 so you can see where we need to keep the snakes warmer. Right now all four snakes are in aquariums with heat lamps/belly heat (on a thermostat of course). Trying to keep humidity up this winter has been a lot of work.

So we're going to order a T10 and start with the female bee since she's outgrown her tank; the two males will be next then the other female. The plan at the moment is to order the T10, RHP from Reptile Basics and a Herpstat 4 :D:D

From what I have read you will not need both as long as your room Temps do not drop extremely low.

My question to you is how exactly are you planning on modifying the cage divider so that you can fit one rhp and make it heat both sides? I ask because I have thought about doing something similar but most rhp manufacturers recommend that no tank surface should be really close to the panel. I believe the reason for that was that it can overheat the internal components of the panel. I know it's not a huge surface maybe a 1/2 inch width of pvc going across the panel but I'm thinking will it be enough to overheat the panel? Or even cause it to malfunction? Let me know your plan and thoughts on it.

Great point BumbleB! I didn't take that into consideration. I guess I'm back to looking at Flexwatt.

Are you dividing the cage because you are going to keep 2 snakes in there? Or are you dividing it just to give a baby less space. If its answer 1 then just buy 2 40 watt RHPs and put one on each side of the cage. Then each snake will have their own RHP and you don't need to do anything to the divider. If its answer 2, then you don't need a divider as long as you provide a few hides for your baby so he/she feels secure moving around.