Running an Oil filled heater

How many of you run one of these oil heaters to raise the room temp where your racks are??

I know I will need to get a thermostat to regulate it and was wondering what thermostat you all recommend.

Also, do you worry about a fire hazard with using one of these when your not home?? If so, what other options do you suggest to heat the room.

Thanks

I use an electric with a built in thermostat to heat the room.

I would recommend a duraflame infrared heater with a digital thermostat built in. Does it need to be the brand duraflame? No but making sure it has a digital read out thermostat will help out a lot.

Do you trust those built in thermostats - I've always heard they were junk. I would prefer to use a separate thermostat for security. I like the oil filled heaters that look like the old time radiators. They seem the safest to me. I have cats in the house and I don't want them to get burned either.

If I can keep my room 72-73 degrees - do you think my rack will be able to sustain a cool side of 74-75 degrees without having to run this heater. I just worry about fire hazards since I work all day.

Reptile basics use to sell Ranco Thermostats all pre-wired and ready to go. I don't think they offer them any longer. Where could I get one pre-wired and ready to go??

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Originally Posted by L.West

Reptile basics use to sell Ranco Thermostats all pre-wired and ready to go. I don't think they offer them any longer. Where could I get one pre-wired and ready to go??

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Spyder Robotics has two different room thermostats they offer. One is a pre wired like you are wanting and the other is to be tied into a home HVAC themostat

http://www.spyderrobotics.com/index....products_id=48


Vivarium Electronics has a high powered as well

http://www.reptilebasics.com/thermos...e/ve-hi-power/

You need a high powered one as the kick off load of all these space heaters is really high and you need something that can handle that intial load.

If you don't want a unit with a built in thermostat make sure to get a new space heater that has tip over protection (all new space heaters should by law) so your cats don't ever tip them over. Oil filled are not any safer than infrared or ceramic, they all are really tightly regulated now so any new one is going to be safe.

Oil filled heaters are the safest heaters out there, I have been running one for 11 years straight now the last 7 years during the winter only and previously it was year round for 4 years (snake room was in the basement then). I never had any worry.

Never trust the built in T-stat on oil filled heaters or other heaters, especially digital ones.

The thermostat I use is a Ranco, when it gives out I will go with this http://www.spyderrobotics.com/index....products_id=48

The spyder robotics thermostat says it handles up to 1500 watts. I believe my heater is 1500 watts. Is that too close for comfort??

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Oil filled heaters are the safest heaters out there, I have been running one for 11 years straight now the last 7 years during the winter only and previously it was year round for 4 years (snake room was in the basement then). I never had any worry.

Never trust the built in T-stat on oil filled heaters or other heaters, especially digital ones.

The thermostat I use is a Ranco, when it gives out I will go with this http://www.spyderrobotics.com/index....products_id=48

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Deborah,

Was it very expensive to run the oil filled heater per month?? Just curious

You would look at around $100-150 a month in addition to normal electric cost. This of course depends on the per kWh rate of your electric company so it might be less or it might be more. If you want to check my math, just google cost to run a 1500 watt space heater. Wattage is the cost, not design. All electric space heaters, of which oil filled is one, heat generally the same and will cost the same to draw power to heat a space.

Now as far as the thermostat controlling the wattage, it should be fine so long as that is the only thing plugged into the wall outlet. Meaning that thermostat with your space heater is not also running on a power strip plugged into other devices.

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Originally Posted by L.West

The spyder robotics thermostat says it handles up to 1500 watts. I believe my heater is 1500 watts. Is that too close for comfort??

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No you are good all oil filled heaters are 1500 watts and all the thermostats used with oil filled heater are handling up to 1500 watts.

Great. I will order the spider robotics thermostat. Do you think they are expensive to run

Not trusting a thermostat on a space heater? Really? Can our wall thermostats be trusted. I will agree oil filled radiators are the best and no doubt the safest. They use oil as a cooling medium for the coils. A lot of them are rated for 1500 watts max which is 12.5 amp draw back to your circuit breaker. If you know how to hardwire a thermostat rated for a 15 amp resistive load for another 50 bucks go for it. If you hardwire a thermostat make double darn sure your connections are tight. A high joint that causes a fire, wired up to an ETL certified space heater by a non licensed electrician may be hard to explain to an insurance company. I'm not sure a certified electrician would be to keen on hardwiring a thermostat to an ETL certified space heater.

Funny you should mention that. Spyder Robotics makes a product to integrate a space heater into your current HVAC wall thermostat

http://www.spyderrobotics.com/index....jc5jumv7cli7f3

Then again fishing wire from another room back to your thermostat would not be my idea of fun.

I rent so hard wiring not an option. I will use a separate thermostat for the heater

I use an oil-filled heater and a ranco t-stat.

I got my t-stat from here. I purchased the pre-wired model with the heavy duty cable and have been very happy with it.

My heater does have a built-in heat setting, but I turn it all the way up and have the unit hooked to the ranco. The ranco has an accuracy setting that you can change, I have mine set to 1 degree and it does a great job. I'm running it in an ~10' x 14' room with an outside wall and it does not have to run all the time to keep the room at 75f. I'm not sure how much it costs to run each month, but I'm sure it is no more than I'm paying to run all my racks and heat mats, etc.


As for safety, I just make sure the heater is about 3-4' away from anything and have had no issues.

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Originally Posted by SDA

You would look at around $100-150 a month in addition to normal electric cost. This of course depends on the per kWh rate of your electric company so it might be less or it might be more. If you want to check my math, just google cost to run a 1500 watt space heater. Wattage is the cost, not design. All electric space heaters, of which oil filled is one, heat generally the same and will cost the same to draw power to heat a space.

Now as far as the thermostat controlling the wattage, it should be fine so long as that is the only thing plugged into the wall outlet. Meaning that thermostat with your space heater is not also running on a power strip plugged into other devices.

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I think this cost estimate is seriously overestimated. Yes, it would cost that if the heater ran at 1500 watts no-stop, but it won't. OP states that the room can be kept in the low 70s. This is equivalent to ambient temps I experience here in South Florida in the winter time. I use an oil filled heater (600 watt) attached to a proportional tstat set to 80 degrees. My entire electric bill in the winter is about $80, most of which I'm sure is not the heater. Of course, room size will impact that, mine is about 1050 cubic feet. Also, many oiled filled heaters have two settings, mine has 600/900 and you can choose one or both for a full 1500 watts. I've found 600 works for me. If you have a model that works in that fashion, I'd say start low and see how it goes.

I've been using these heaters for many years without problem. I don't think they're any more of a fire hazard than letting your refrigerator run all day.

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Originally Posted by DennisM

I think this cost estimate is seriously overestimated. Yes, it would cost that if the heater ran at 1500 watts no-stop, but it won't. OP states that the room can be kept in the low 70s. This is equivalent to ambient temps I experience here in South Florida in the winter time. I use an oil filled heater (600 watt) attached to a proportional tstat set to 80 degrees. My entire electric bill in the winter is about $80, most of which I'm sure is not the heater. Of course, room size will impact that, mine is about 1050 cubic feet. Also, many oiled filled heaters have two settings, mine has 600/900 and you can choose one or both for a full 1500 watts. I've found 600 works for me. If you have a model that works in that fashion, I'd say start low and see how it goes.

I've been using these heaters for many years without problem. I don't think they're any more of a fire hazard than letting your refrigerator run all day.

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I was not aware that South Florida got as cold as Deerfield Michigan in the winter.

I could be wrong but I don't think it gets below freezing in South Florida. L.West will find out after running it for a few months what the cost is but $100 is not overestimating Michigan winters at all especially if they don't have the best insulated home ;)

Yeah, time will tell. I keep my house at 72 so the heater only has to compensate a couple degrees.

Does the heater have to be digital or can it have disls??
Mine has two dials. One for power out put and one for temp.

How do I set my dials.

Personally if you keep your house at 72 I would not even bother with a heater. It would be a waste of electricity to heat a room just a few degrees above what you keep it. Really You would only need that space heater if you didn't heat to that temp.

I was considering it because in order to keep the tubs hot side at 86 in drops the cool side down to the room temp of 72-73 and I was told No cooler than 75 was a must. I am keeping Honduran Milk snakes in this rack

I run two oil filled heaters hooked up to Johnsons thermostats during the winter. One in the garage for the rats and one in the reptile room so it doesn't dip below 75 degrees (without this, the room can get to low 60's). This will only be the second season running them but I feel safe running them and love the peace of mind not worrying about cold temps. I would definitely suggest running a thermostat (on/off type) with the heaters. My electricity bill goes up about $75-$100 a month with these two heaters.

I run an oil filled heater on a Ranco in a room totally on ambient. I have very little change in my electric bill in the winter but then I am in south florida so i don't normally need to push the temps up too much. So far it has been a very reliable system.

To the person talking about home thermostats...

It depends on the position of the thermostat and the quality. I had a very bad situation with my home thermostat and my AC this year. I ended up having to install a much better one and am preparing to put the reptile room on its own ac system before next summer.

Well, it's April now. How did this turn out?