How to hang heat lamps safely inside enclosure

Hey everyone,

I am building a plywood enclosed sulcata enclosure and need some electrical help. I am planning on using two 8 in reptile dome lamps inside the enclosure. Since these lamps don't come with a hook on them, I am wondering what the safest and easiest way to accomplish mounting them is. I see that some people hang them by the cord over a hook, but Im wondering if that is safe, and also how it is best to attach the cord to the enclosure itself to maintain the correct lamp height, as well as prevent the cord from pulling out of the power strip.

thanks

Anyone?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JoshSloane

Hey everyone,

I am building a plywood enclosed sulcata enclosure and need some electrical help. I am planning on using two 8 in reptile dome lamps inside the enclosure. Since these lamps don't come with a hook on them, I am wondering what the safest and easiest way to accomplish mounting them is. I see that some people hang them by the cord over a hook, but Im wondering if that is safe, and also how it is best to attach the cord to the enclosure itself to maintain the correct lamp height, as well as prevent the cord from pulling out of the power strip.

thanks

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Refresh my memory, the enclosure doesn't have a roof right?

I have used metal coat hangers and drilled holes into the dome to hang the from a hook.

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I think we need a better description of the enclosure before we can advise you. Usually you can just use anything meant for routing electrical cords that screw in to a wall or ceiling, but depends on the cage.

If there is a roof on it. Drill a small hole for the cord to go through and clap the cord on the outside so the dome hangs at the height you need on the inside.

If there is no roof, the next question would be do you want the ability to raise and lower the lights to adjust the ambients or are you ok with a fixed height. My thought would be to use a beam (wood, metal, whatever you have laying around) that spans the width of the cage so the walls would hold it up( put a little L Bracket at each end so it can't be knocked off the walls and drop into the cage), you could then ditch the domes and wire up some light fixtures and use some low wattage outdoor flood lights with a built in reflector, this would eliminate the need to use the wires as the hanging points and keep them from being able to swing into each other, you could still make it to where you could raise and lower the bulbs if you wanted..

What I have done for monitors is taken one of these clamps made for rubber tubing (I don't know the name but picture below) and used that to secure a chain or string to the cord. Then you can hang that off something and know that it won't slip.

http://www.pchemlabs.com/files/images/clamp1b.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JoshSloane

Hey everyone,

I am building a plywood enclosed sulcata enclosure and need some electrical help. I am planning on using two 8 in reptile dome lamps inside the enclosure. Since these lamps don't come with a hook on them, I am wondering what the safest and easiest way to accomplish mounting them is. I see that some people hang them by the cord over a hook, but Im wondering if that is safe, and also how it is best to attach the cord to the enclosure itself to maintain the correct lamp height, as well as prevent the cord from pulling out of the power strip.

thanks

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Any reason you're not mounting hardwired fixtures instead? That would be much easier and safer unless you plan on having them suspended in the middle of the enclosure, nowhere near an acceptable mounting surface.