Question for AP cage users

I love my AP cage and so does Shahrazad. (I think she just likes it because its dark inside.) But unfortunately, the undercage heating coil does run up my electricity bill a bit. I was thinking of going to the flexwatt tape heating system. I am pretty sure that using the tape heating on the outside of the cage would be somewhat pointless and useless because the heat would probably not penetrate the plastic so therefore I would most likely have to put the tape inside of the cage. So my question is this. Has anyone here ever done this before? Is there a way to do this safely and not endanger my reptiles with electrocution? (I also have a blue tongued skink who I keep in an AP cage.) I am in no way mechanically inclined so if you have any ideas, some well explained steps would be appreciated.

If not, I may need to go back to conventional glass cages because it is pretty expensive to run the undercoil heating.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Rachel

I really doubt that the heat coil is running up your bill. I bet the heat cable uses much less power than a 50-75watt bulb running 24/7!

I think your electric bill has more to do with it being July than 2 feet of heat rope on a tstat!

I use 10 boaphile cages with flexwatt and 12 ap cages with heat coil. And my bill went up only $7 bucks a month.


Sounds like something else may be wrong.

Our electricity is through the roof...but then it's a) summer in b) Southern California where it's been c) 100+ degrees a lot...

A couple of UTHs aren't making a big difference. =)

I have an AP cage with the cable and have not experienced a jump in my electricity. I do have a rheostat on it too.

Agreed with all. The heat cable has nothing to do with your power bill going up. Its the middle of summer and that is when electricity costs go up.