What am I doing wrong?

I got my new t-stat (herpstat) and flexwatt (thanks to Matt at MG) and have set up my new sterilite tub. I have the flexwatt taped to the bottom of the tub using foil tape, and have the the thermostat probe taped directly to the bottom of the flexwatt, also using foil tape. The thermostat is set to 96 and that only translates to 82 degrees for the surface temp of the tub on the warm side.

doesn't sound "wrong". the herpstat is controlling the heat tape to 96 deg., you're losing around 10-15 deg. to the ambient air,substrate and the tub. how warm is the area/room the tub is in? how is the tub setup? back heat or belly heat? is this a stand alone tub or in a rack? all of these factors will come into play.


vaughn

It is a stand alone tub. Ambient air temp is around 68 degrees. My substrate consists of two sheets of newpaper. The surface temp of the tub under the newsprint is about .5 degrees higher than the newspaper temp.....



I can easily bump up the herpstat temp., but I was wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do.

Incidentally, the flexwatt is underneath the tub, so it would be belly heat.

sounds like the stat and heat tape are fine. probably the ambient 68 deg. is to blame. the higher your ambient room temps are the less heat you will lose.


vaughn

Thanks, I will try bumping up the stat. There isn't much I can do about the ambient--It's 20 degrees outside today, and I expect that is as warm as it will be for the next few months.

Just get a cheap space heater for that area of the room, and bump your room temp up to about 75 if you can. That should really alleviate the problem that you are having.

i was gonna say that, lol. but really. that helps tons. i have my own room outside and if it werent for my little space heater the room temp would be like 65 degrees, less at night. instead of the 70-75 that it is. little electic space heaters really do help.

I will try the space heater as soon as I can pick one up. BTW, Monty is not in this enclosure yet, I am trying to get things regulated before I worry about moving him. I also insulated the bottom of the tub with duct insulation, we'll see how that goes.


Thanks!

what i've done is put a heating pad on top of dexter's viv on low. it increases his ambient temp and i don't have to heat a whole room just for him!