Rack system temperature concern.

Hey all, im building my first 41 qt rack system (here it is, i still have to put the back and side panels on to enclose it)

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p...0/102_1097.jpg

I thought I read everything I needed to about these racks, but I just read about maintaining ambient temps in a cold room.

I was planning on using a foot of 11" flexwatt on the back side for the hot side.

My concern is, the temperature of the room the rack will be kept in bounces between 65-70 degrees. will the flexwatt do a sufficient job in keeping a proper hot side/cold side temp AND keep a decent ambient temp?? is there something I should change or add to my rack to make it work? ive got a 40g and 55g tank sitting empty (unwillingly) that I can use instead, but id like a rack for when I get more snakes.

thanks! sorry its a kinda drawn out post.

Flexwatt does not do a good job with ambient temps. The best thing to do is add insulation to your rack to keep the heat in. Other members have more experience with this than I do so I will let them explain further.

Thanks bud!

With the room being so cold, I would Enclose it very well and use the 11" as belly heat on hot side set at 90 and get a spare thermostat fo cool side and run 11" for cool side as well set at 80. Doing this will give you the results your looking for.


I would first Test the 11" belly heat for hot spot first. See how they fair front to back of tub. If still too cold id do the extra for cool side or raise room temps to at least 77

With an ambient room temp of 65-70 degrees you're gonna' be fighting an uphill battle to keep the tubs at a good temp.

You can insulate the sides and back with foamcore to give you a little bit of R value, but it will only go so far in a room that cold. You could also use an oil filled radient heater to raise the temp around your rack, but you'd need to play around with location to achieve even heating.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

With the room being so cold, I would Enclose it very well and use the 11" as belly heat on hot side set at 90 and get a spare thermostat fo cool side and run 11" for cool side as well set at 80. Doing this will give you the results your looking for.


I would first Test the 11" belly heat for hot spot first. See how they fair front to back of tub. If still too cold id do the extra for cool side or raise room temps to at least 77

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Thats a good idea, thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slim

With an ambient room temp of 65-70 degrees you're gonna' be fighting an uphill battle to keep the tubs at a good temp.

You can insulate the sides and back with foamcore to give you a little bit of R value, but it will only go so far in a room that cold. You could also use an oil filled radient heater to raise the temp around your rack, but you'd need to play around with location to achieve even heating.

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Hmm, maybe ill try putting it in my closet (which is better insulated and farther away from the windows, and also darker :P) maybe that will help. thanks for the input!

My rack is in a room warmer than yours and I have had a hard time with ambient temps. I have been running flexwatt 4 inch on the hot spot and 17 inch on the cool end. My rack is a 5 slot PVCx one so it is a bit insulating alone. I have the top 3 slots (hot side) on a single probe of the tsat and the bottom 2 on a second probe. The cool side is on one but the bottom that is on a separate probe. (four in total) I use 1 inch blue foam insulation on all sides but the front.

I have holes in the tubs on the back and sides but few on the front. The vents on the rack are at the back and there is a bit of an air space between the rack and insulation that follows up to the top where it is closed and vents are cut in the front top. This makes the ventilation air run across the top and back to the tubs I gain 5-9ºF to the air temp doing this.

I am able to hold 80º cool surface and 78-82º ambient air temps and 90º warm side surface. The temps are consistent top to bottom. It works but is not easy. The easy and short term cheap solution is to heat the room to 80º and be done with it. In the long run flexwatt and t-stat will pay for them selves in heat unless you add a second rack.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

My rack is in a room warmer than yours and I have had a hard time with ambient temps. I have been running flexwatt 4 inch on the hot spot and 17 inch on the cool end. My rack is a 5 slot PVCx one so it is a bit insulating alone. I have the top 3 slots (hot side) on a single probe of the tsat and the bottom 2 on a second probe. The cool side is on one but the bottom that is on a separate probe. (four in total) I use 1 inch blue foam insulation on all sides but the front.

I have holes in the tubs on the back and sides but few on the front. The vents on the rack are at the back and there is a bit of an air space between the rack and insulation that follows up to the top where it is closed and vents are cut in the front top. This makes the ventilation air run across the top and back to the tubs I gain 5-9ºF to the air temp doing this.

I am able to hold 80º cool surface and 78-82º ambient air temps and 90º warm side surface. The temps are consistent top to bottom. It works but is not easy. The easy and short term cheap solution is to heat the room to 80º and be done with it. In the long run flexwatt and t-stat will pay for them selves in heat unless you add a second rack.

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Wow! that sounds really really involved. Unfortunetly living at home, my dad wouldnt be to fond of me running a heater constantly. Sounds like I may have myself a nice 41qt storage system and a BP in a 55 gallon tank! lol

Is there any kind of pre made enclosure (like the boaphile 421, but hopefully cheaper ) that would be better to use?

I use the Animal Plastics T8, check out this thread I wrote on them

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...With-Pictures!

Mine is an Animal Plastics. It is marginally better. The real answer is a warm room it can be done but it is not simple or actually a good solution. The custom enclosures made commercially offer a wider range of heating possibilities that will deal with this situation. They are IMO the best option for cool ambient temp rooms. Tubs cool too quickly, they simply do not do well in low ambient temp rooms.

For now i guess i will stick with my 40g. when I move out I will look into the tubs again. I really like the stackable 421d's :]

My 11" wide flexwatt reads at 108 degrees but the hot spot inside the bin above the heat tape reads only 84 degrees. The underside of the flexwatt is in contact with plywood so I'd think more heat would transfer up into the tank but apparently it doesn't...