How do YOU heat larger enclosures and what am I doing wrong?

Hey everyone, I was really hoping to get some help trying to get to the bottom of what I’m doing wrong. I have a young reticulated python that I’m struggling to keep warm. I kept her in a wooden enclosure 4’x18”x18” and heated it with a 80 watt radiant heat panel, this seemed to work. Now that she’s grown a bit I moved her over to a larger wooden enclosure, 6’x2’x2’ and got her a 120 watt radiant heat panel by reptile basics. I thought this would be enough, their own website says “The 120 watt panel is for generally for larger cages 2'x6' or larger, open air enclosures or cool room temperatures.” But once installed this does not seem to be cutting it. I have it installed, plugged in, and running in the closed cage and my digital thermometer is only reading 86*F hot side directly beneath the heater. The baseline temp in my house is 73*F. I’m running this heater wide open, no thermostat to down regulate power at all. Does this sound right? I was hoping it would at least be able to get up to about 90*F. What are y’all using to heat larger enclosures and do you have any recommendations for how I can try to fix this, short or nixing the expensive RHP I hope?

That's the same RHP I use in an 8'x30"18" enclosure, but my house ambient is 77*F.

The 24" height in your enclosure is also an issue as the further away you get from the RHP the less effective it is. I would try putting a 6 to 9 inch high basking shelf under the RHP so that if your snake wants to be warmer it can lay on it.

Typically on a enclosure that size a RHP isnt going to heat the entire enclosure, as the heat is radiating downward the substrate itself. Is this a retic cage? If so you could leave it like that honestly, give a nice gradient if they want to get cooled down. Mine switch from hot to cold side a bit. Cold end of my cages are about 74-75 with hot side right around 87-88.

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I have a 54"x20"x20" glass enclosure for my ball python and it really is hard to keep the heat in there. I covered most of it with blankets and will probably put plastic around it this winter. I can't fully heat everything but I can get the important places. I have 2 medium heat pads under his hide on the warm side (1 large would probably work the same but my local store only had mediums) set on a thermostat to 90 degrees, I check with a temp gun often to make sure it's working and at the right temperature. I have a small heat pad with a different thermostat set to 80 degrees under his hide on the cool side. I also have a 100 watt CHE and a 100 watt black nightlight (my ball python is so active with the moonlight) over on the warm side. Of course it doesn't reach very far but at least my little guy has a basking spot if he wants to use it at night (he does). I keep my house warm in the winter, usually at around 76. My ball python is perfectly happy with this setup, he may not eat in the winter but this is normal for ball pythons but he sure does like to come out and play in his room showing that he is a happy snake. :)

Edit: Forgot to mention he has bamboo perches up high so he can go bask under his CHE and black light and be comfortable.

I had two 6'x2'x3' enclosures (LxWxH), heated with 120 watt panels on one side, and a 100 watt CHE on the other. I also had to cover the doors to hold in heat. Once I got a space heater and started heating the room to ~80F, I didn't need the covers or the CHEs anymore, though. Even at 3' of height, the panels had no issues providing belly heat all the way to the floor, it's ambients where they start to fail.

80 watts is kinda overkill for my 4'x2'x2's, let alone 4'x18"x18", so that's probably why it heated the smaller one so well. 120 watts is just nearly underpowered for a 6'x2'x2'. I would talk to Pro Products, and perhaps they could get you a larger panel.

Splitting the height up with a basking shelf or branches as mentioned is also a good idea. Snakes don't use basking temps much, so as long as floor temps stay at minimums, they can just move up closer to the panel for extra heat.

You might try finding a large piece of flat stone to put directly under the panel. I have big piece of 1” thick Kentucky blue stone in one cage and a large 3/4” thick porcelain tile in the other, I use Che’s set at 87 and the stones heat up to 92-93 and retain heat for along time.

Thanks for the replies. I can’t do too much about the house temps, but will start by providing elevated basking area below the heater.

Where is your panel placed?

I have a Pro-Products RHP and have the panel centered in the middle of the left side of my 6' x 30" x 2' cage. I feel having the panel centered on one side (left) provides better ambient temps over having it all the way to the left, in my case.
https://i.imgur.com/mfJSiEU.jpg

The probe is on the far right (cool) side of the cage. It is unattached to the ceiling here but you can get the idea of where it hangs. I keep it just off of the substrate making the lowest level of the enclosure "the temp mark".
https://i.imgur.com/WPqJO6D.jpg

I believe the room I have all of the snakes in runs about 70 degrees year round. The panel heats the entire cage and because the probe is on the cool side, the ambient temp is usually 10 degrees cooler on the far right, and directly under the panel is usually 10 degrees warmer.

There are other options and many folks have the probe on the hot side.

bcr229 brought up a good point when mentioning a shelf. My particular setup provides levels of climate. The perches span the cage and obviously the perch points directly under the panel are far warmer than the floor temps.

This photo shows the early stages of the build. You can see the perch placement.
https://i.imgur.com/5YbiIYx.jpg

Here you can see the snake has the option to perch under the panel and get maximum heat. The perches also block some of the heat going to the floor and the hide blocks more heat but is still warmer than the cool side.
https://i.imgur.com/KIXWyie.jpg

I have no doubt a shelf option would yield the same results.

On a side note, I started keeping the temps slightly lower for my guy and he seems to prefer the cooler atmosphere.

I provide a night drop for all of the critters here as well.

There are certainly other options and the way I set things up may or may not work for you.

Hopefully you get things dialed in.

For a 8’ enclosure in my home thats always 68 degrees in the winter and 66 with AC during summer I use one 150 watt pro panel for the Hot side and one 120 for cool side. Probe must be hanging a min of 1/2 way between the ceiling and floor. I prefer 3/4 down. I use a Herpstat2 and run the Hotside on 100% power and cool side on 80% power. Its set to 91 and 81 degrees.
Works like a charm. My 4 foot enclosures use one Pro Panel.


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