Another headache from living in a very old home

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Originally Posted by Mr Sully

PVC or not this weather is kickin my butt too. I have over sized RHP's from Bob at Pro Products and my temps still drop at night.. I cant stand covering the enclosures because winter is when I'm home and I like to look in at them all the time. What I found is the biggest loss of heat is the Glass. I put a 4'x2' 1/2" piece of Foam insulation board over the glass and that fixed the problem 100%. What good is that for Display Enclosures hahahahaha. Im thinking about asking about some kind of insulated vacuum seal glass or something. Of course if the Glass was any thicker the problem would be the slider tracks and how the glass indents on the sides of the PVC. It would have to be routed wider and that wouldn't be worth the trouble or the chance of me screwing it up.


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Hahahaha, I hear ya. I'm sure the cold is kicking your butt in NY too.
I guess I will just have to make new ones to fit the pvc when the time comes.
I just leave the front viewing glass open now, so I guess heat escaping from one side as opposed to 5 is better. Aesthetically, it doesn't even look too bad.

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Originally Posted by craigafrechette

Hahahaha, I hear ya. I'm sure the cold is kicking your butt in NY too.
I guess I will just have to make new ones to fit the pvc when the time comes.
I just leave the front viewing glass open now, so I guess heat escaping from one side as opposed to 5 is better. Aesthetically, it doesn't even look too bad.

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Ive covered 75% of my vents too. When I think back 25 years ago we never thought of venting or 1/2 of the other things we do today (2 Hides/Humidity/Belly heat vs Back heat ect) I wonder how much ventilation they really need.


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Originally Posted by Mr Sully

Ive covered 75% of my vents too. When I think back 25 years ago we never thought of venting or 1/2 of the other things we do today (2 Hides/Humidity/Belly heat vs Back heat ect) I wonder how much ventilation they really need.


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Yup, 18 years ago when I got my first snakes, it was basically a tank, astroturf, some rocks and branches, a hide, a waterbowl, a lid and a heat lamp. Some bricks or something heavy on top of the lid.

I had thermometers eventually. Never measured humidity, no thermostat, no two hides, no belly heat, etc...

My Burm had a Heat Rock (worst thing possible) for at least 10 years. Sometimes I think all this info now makes me more Obsessive if anything hahaha


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Originally Posted by Mr Sully

My Burm had a Heat Rock (worst thing possible) for at least 10 years. Sometimes I think all this info now makes me more Obsessive if anything hahaha


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I had one for my iguana. Makes me cringe now.

I think all the new info makes me want to help my animals thrive, rather than just live.

Well, one of the terrariums now has insulation sheets on three sides. I'll be working on the other terrarium tonight. I just checked the weather outside. It's almost 40°. Yay!! :-)

Well, another unforeseen problem.

The terrariums for both snakes are in the living room because I do like to look at them and like for my guests to see them, too. I have been able to stabilize the electrical problems with using the ceramic heaters underneath the terrariums to raise the ambient heat of the enclosures. Unfortunately, no matter how I try to isolate the output of the ceramic heaters, in addition to raising the ambient temps of the terrariums, it is also raising the ambient temps in the living room. So, take a wild guess as to what else is in the living room?

Yep, you guessed it! The thermostat for the furnace controlling the heat to the entire house. It now reflects the artificial ambient heat in the living room but NOT the temps in the rest of the house. So, when it was nice and toasty in the living room last night, even though it was 4° outside last night, it was C . . O . . L . . D in the rest of the house -- especially my bedroom!!!! :-(

Oh, well. Back to the drawing board. Move the snakes or move the thermostat? That is the question! lol

<><Peace

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Originally Posted by Mr Sully

What I found is the biggest loss of heat is the Glass. I put a 4'x2' 1/2" piece of Foam insulation board over the glass and that fixed the problem 100%. What good is that for Display Enclosures hahahahaha. Im thinking about asking about some kind of insulated vacuum seal glass or something.

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The thermal conductivity of most plastics is around 0.2-0.5 (W/mK) with PVC being around 0.3, whereas glass is closer to 0.8 (higher number = more heat loss). Couple this with the fact that plastics are almost always thicker and you can see why it holds heat much better than your typical glass cage. I also really like glass doors due to the fact that they don't scratch or warp in comparison to acrylic. However, acrylic does have a thermal conductivity of 0.2, so if you have reasonably thick acrylic, it makes for a better insulating door.

This is one reason I like to use glass tanks (despite their irritating weight) for lower temperature species (crested geckos, dart frogs, etc.). It allows the tank not to hold so much heat even if a hot spot RHP is installed. For higher temperature species (ball pythons, boas, tokay geckos, etc.), thick plastic with acrylic doors is easily best from a heating perspective....but I too still like glass doors.

A type of glass exists called "architectural insulating glass" which actually has an air gap between two panes of glass allowing it to insulate much better (air has a very low thermal conductivity), but would probably be prohibitively thick for caging purposes.

Thats what I was thinking.. Just like Double Pane Vacuum seal.. Its to thick for the track. If I would've known better I would've had them make the enclosure for wider glass.


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How cold are we talking? I can't believe SW VA or NY is very cold. Here in the upper Great Plains when its cold, we are talking -20 F or even colder. And fluctuates. Last week, -10 was the high one day. Today its 40 above 0. I don't have any issues in my house. Do you have a properly functioning furnace? What's the thermostat set to? Even an old house should be able to stay warm if everything is as you say with insulation and such. While the lower level of my split level tends to be a bit cooler than the upper level, I don't have issue heating my snakes. 70-72 is pretty optimal, and if you can tolerate 68-70 that's even better for your bill, but if your house can't maintain that you have problems somewhere that should be addressed.