Lamp Thermostat ?

What would be a good thermostat for a overhead heat lamp? I've been using one for the ambient temps of my BP's 10 gallon tank and I think it may be getting to warm at times. Not deadly hot, but 87 and I think it should be around 80

there re not really any good thermostat for a lamp they work by turning the source on and off it would be very stressful for a snake. The answer is a rheostat not a thermostat it is a voltage vary system the same as a dimmer switch.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

there re not really any good thermostat for a lamp they work by turning the source on and off it would be very stressful for a snake. The answer is a rheostat not a thermostat it is a voltage vary system the same as a dimmer switch.

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Yeah, that would be better yet.. Any suggestions?

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Here's one from Zoo Med http://www.reptilesupply.com/product...roducts_id=489 It's pretty cheap. Any Good?

A proportional thermostat paired with an infrared or blacklight heat lamp is what I would use. A proportional thermostat will act like an automated dimmer and an infrared/blacklight heat lamp will produce light that doesn't bother a snake like a bright white lamp would.

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

A proportional thermostat paired with an infrared or blacklight heat lamp is what I would use. A proportional thermostat will act like an automated dimmer and an infrared/blacklight heat lamp will produce light that doesn't bother a snake like a bright white lamp would.

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I already have the Zoo Med double lamp with the day/night bulbs.. I'd hate to start over if I can add to and make it work. Thanks for the suggestion though, I might have to change everything, I don;t know

I personally would not use a proportional t-stat with a lamp of any kind IR or blacklight (which are not good to use in anyway the UVB-C they are designed to output is harmful to the snakes eyes and your eyes too) this will cause strobing and constant variation.

from the designer of herpstat proportional Thermostats


Question:
Can the Herpstat be used with overhead basking lights?

Answer:
Thermostat control of lamps that provide visible illumination is not ideal. The lamp would constantly be changing brightness and turning/off during regulation which may be stressful for the animal or the owner. If you need to provide heat from above then a radiant heat panel or ceramic heat emitter should be used. Then a low wattage bulb can be added for illumination of the enclosure.



Dion Brewington
Owner, Spyder Robotics

A rheostat can be bought from most hardware stores and if you are unsure of electrical work you can often buy wired ones from pet stores or sometimes you can get lamp cords that have one built in.

I currently have 4 Infrared heat lamps hooked up to a Herpstat 4. The changing in brightness really isn't a big deal as it changes in small increments. If I switch them to on/off mode they drive me nuts. Just my $0.02

OK, so the Rheostat isn't going to dim the lights when it hits a certain temp? I would still have to do this manually and just try to adjust to keep the ambient where I want it?

http://www.reptilebasics.com/thermos...onics-ve-200d/

This is a dimming thermostat. I have not used it. I have used this website for other items and am pleased.

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Originally Posted by arialmt

http://www.reptilebasics.com/thermos...onics-ve-200d/
This is a dimming thermostat. I have not used it. I have used this website for other items and am pleased.

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That is the same type of thermostat that I am talking about, a proportional dimming thermostat.

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Originally Posted by BillinIndiana

OK, so the Rheostat isn't going to dim the lights when it hits a certain temp? I would still have to do this manually and just try to adjust to keep the ambient where I want it?

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Yes a rheostat is a manual device whereas a thermostat is an automated device. If the room your cage is in stays about the same temperature most of the time a rheostat will be much cheaper and be just as effective. But if your room temperatures change often you are going to have to moniter cage temperatures and adjust the rheostat. I personally prefer an automated system that regulates itself. That's why I use and reccommend thermostats.

I just use a lamp to test the outlets of mine the fluttering would make me crazy. If I needed a T-stat and I had to use an over head source I'd choose a CHE and be done with it. They are more heat per watt than bulbs anyway (power saver)

So can a CHE screw right into am regular lamp fixture, say the Zoo Med double dome?

Yes they can.

Yes, the emit no human visible light. They come a a variety of wattage's and can easily be controlled by a t-stat as if they vary it doesn't get dim and bring then off then on bright dim every few seconds. It would make me crazy but then again I have display enclosures and look at them a lot (beside my desk) so I am sensitive to it.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

I just use a lamp to test the outlets of mine the fluttering would make me crazy. If I needed a T-stat and I had to use an over head source I'd choose a CHE and be done with it. They are more heat per watt than bulbs anyway (power saver)

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Once the temperatures stabilize they pretty much don't change. Mine stay in the 28-40% range most of the time. the difference in the amount of light put out by an infrared bulb is almost unnoticeable. It might be more of an issue with white bulbs.

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Originally Posted by BillinIndiana

So can a CHE screw right into am regular lamp fixture, say the Zoo Med double dome?

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If you use a CHE though, you should really use one of the wire-domes instead of one that's closed on all sides. Suckers can get _really_ hot. Make sure there aren't any pets around that can go sticking their noses in them either, I made the mistake of grabbing one to make sure it was tight in the fixture within a few seconds of turning it on and instantly got second degree burns on my hand. :(

I have both a red-light and a CHE to help control the ambient temp on the cool end of Shen's tank, but only the red-light is on during the day. Come night the CHE switches on and his tank is in "natural" darkness.

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Originally Posted by OmNomNom

I have both a red-light and a CHE to help control the ambient temp on the cool end of Shen's tank, but only the red-light is on during the day. Come night the CHE switches on and his tank is in "natural" darkness.

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I thought the Red light was for Night time.

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Originally Posted by BillinIndiana

I thought the Red light was for Night time.

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red or infrared bulbs can be used 24/7. Ball Pythons are nocturnal so they really don't like bright white light at all.

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Originally Posted by OmNomNom

If you use a CHE though, you should really use one of the wire-domes instead of one that's closed on all sides. Suckers can get _really_ hot. Make sure there aren't any pets around that can go sticking their noses in them either, I made the mistake of grabbing one to make sure it was tight in the fixture within a few seconds of turning it on and instantly got second degree burns on my hand. :(

I have both a red-light and a CHE to help control the ambient temp on the cool end of Shen's tank, but only the red-light is on during the day. Come night the CHE switches on and his tank is in "natural" darkness.

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if it is being controlled by a thermostat it shouldn't be as much of an issue. As long as the lamp as a ceramic socket it should be fine.

Will a 60 Watt CHE work on a 10 gallon tank?

Should be enough unless your room is really really cold.

Its actually the other way around, the room gets too warm.. I think I have this figured out now..?

The Day/Night bulbs get it too warm in the tank when the room's temp goes up. So, I'll get rid of those and add the CHE hooked to another T-stat using one side of he double-dome and stand I already have. Then I'll look into a maybe an LED light or something low watt and non-heat emitting for illumination in the daylight hours.. Night time might just have to be dark without a lamp.? I guess, which sucks because that is when she moves a lot.

You could get a LED light bulb or a compact fluorescent bulb and put it in the other side of the double dome.

You could even get a RGB (color changing) LED bulb so it can be white during the day and red at night. Most RGB LED bulbs have a built in dimmer as well.

I've used this in the past: http://www.elementalled.com/rgb-remo...ight-bulb.html

A 60w likely will do it will need to be regulated all heat sources do but It is quite likely it is enough as the tank is not very large. I would venture a guess that it would work fine until you get into the high to mid 60s room temp than a 100w might be better perhaps...

Red is questionable, snakes do not have human vision. They see full infrared (we do not) through the spectrum we can to the dark blues where they no longer see. This would place a near IR bulb in the middle of the spectrum not at the end as it is with us. This means looking at a prism the middle colour we can see is yellow green. The near IR bulb is the middle of their spectrum we see it as deep red as we only can perceive some of the light it emits snakes can perceive all of it. The assumption is it would appear quite bright much like a regular tungsten bulb is for us. It is unlikely a 'dark colour emitting little light but more a bright light source.

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Originally Posted by BillinIndiana

Its actually the other way around, the room gets too warm.. I think I have this figured out now..?

The Day/Night bulbs get it too warm in the tank when the room's temp goes up. So, I'll get rid of those and add the CHE hooked to another T-stat using one side of he double-dome and stand I already have. Then I'll look into a maybe an LED light or something low watt and non-heat emitting for illumination in the daylight hours.. Night time might just have to be dark without a lamp.? I guess, which sucks because that is when she moves a lot.

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We use Herpstat 1's to control the heat lamps on all of our bearded dragon enclosures. We use halogen bulb flood lights which are dimmable and produce a nice hot spot. The light intensity changes are barely noticeable.

LED light's are great for supplemental lighting. I've found that even CFL bulbs output too much heat for an enclosure that has the perfect cool spot. Home Depot has a reasonably priced 40 watt LED that puts out a fair amount of light (and supposedly lasts 50 years... we'll see).

I need to work on the Hot Spot also... Right now we're just going to worry about the ambient.. We have the hot side/cool side pretty much under control.. Probably going to have to switch to the Flucker mini UTH.. The one for 10-20 gal. tanks takes up about 2/3 of the bottom.. So are difference in temps are only about 5 degrees from Hot hide to Cool Hide.. That was checked with a PE 2 heat gun.

I use blue LED rope light in my cage and it works really well. Pretty bright but doesn't seem to disturb night time activity. She comes out and explores at night.

It also didn't raise temps in my cage any noticeable amount.

I use these lamps, they have built in dimmers: http://www.petco.com/product/116922/...th-Dimmer.aspx

I also have a thermostat that kicks them off if it gets too warm. I just adjust the rheostats till the temp is right and set the thermostat just a hair above that. Hardly ever goes off and on, but the room temp does fluctuate from time to time so they do get cut off every once in a while.

The trick is to keep them set really low so the temp stays constant. At first I had them turned up way too high so they would kick on and off all the time. Got really annoying since its in my office at home here.

So many options...Haha ! I have ordered a CHE and another thermostat.. We'll try this for awhile and see how it does.

"A proportional thermostat paired with an infrared or blacklight heat lamp is what I would use. A proportional thermostat will act like an automated dimmer and an infrared/blacklight heat lamp will produce light that doesn't bother a snake like a bright white lamp would."


This is the exact advice I got from Aaron for my son's setup. I have to say it's been PERFECT for our situation. The Herpstat II coupled with a UTH and an infrared bulb. Aaron suggested a 75W bulb as it has more power range and will seldom run at max output.

Since taking this advice I've never had any issues with temps other than room temps making the stat work a little harder which is the whole purpose anyhow.

Also note that if you have a thermostat failure the Herpstats fail in the off position so you'd end up with lower temps instead of all heat sources blasting at full power as some stats fail in the on position.

The changing light is not very noticeable the the dimming mode and if room temps are steady, you'll hardly notice.

I just for interest sake placed a red bulb in a test enclosure. It was off well at such a low setting hard to see if it is on (herpstat reading 0%) then it would flicker on dimly then off again. I guess I have designed very heat efficient enclosures as the hs is at 0% more than anything else. I find it annoying myself it would depend on how efficient the enclosure is less efficient ones are likely to need longer and higher amounts of heat.


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Originally Posted by kitedemon

I just for interest sake placed a red bulb in a test enclosure. It was off well at such a low setting hard to see if it is on (herpstat reading 0%) then it would flicker on dimly then off again. I guess I have designed very heat efficient enclosures as the hs is at 0% more than anything else. I find it annoying myself it would depend on how efficient the enclosure is less efficient ones are likely to need longer and higher amounts of heat.


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That was my case it is a large enclosure but a cool room and mine would consistently flicker or turn right off. It was only good for 5-10 minutes max. I really like the CHE because it does the same job, lasts longer, and doesn't produce light so it allows you to use cool light sources like LED and fluorescent to manage your lighting needs for day/night.