pvc heating issues

hi everyone.

i just completed a completely DIY (and totally awesome if i say so myself) 48”x18”x24” PVC enclosure and am having trouble heating. we built it with the intention to heat it with a heat lamp so that’s the situation we’re trying to work with. radiant heat panels are not out of the question but for the moment we are trying to make this heat lamp situation work.

i have tried 3 bulb situations and none are hitting where it needs to be. i tried 2 CHEs in 100w and 150w and an arcadia deep heat projector in 80w (recommended to me by pangea customer support). thermostat set to 88 as needed and.. none have the lamp heating past 82 and the floor of the enclosure going past 80. even playing with the temp and putting it to 97(!) will not get the floor above 85. i have moved the probe closer to and further from the lamp as well to see if the distance helps at all and only marginally. i cannot make it to where i need.

please help. 🥲

What kind of thermostat do you have? Is the enclosure without an animal right now? What is the room ambient temp like? You might test out how hot it gets without a thermostat (not with an animal in there) to see if your thermostat is the problem.

i was able to finally get the temp where it needed to be with more playing around. thank you for your response.

(i tried to delete but couldn’t oops)