Well i see several things that I haven’t heard of before in this post.
In the US 99% of us do not put Heat Mats inside a enclosure because we us Tanks or PVC enclosures. We put the Mat under the enclosure to heat the floor but if Im reading correctly your enclosure is wood so the Heat from the Mat wouldn’t penetrate through enough. You must have a heat mat that’s liquid proof? Also you Wont catch the wood on fire, thats would need to be extremely hot, not 100-150 degrees.. also putting a Heat mat on the side of any enclosure is Useless. These stores are full of people that know nothing and want to sell everything to you
If I were you id do 1 of 2 things....
1) My first choice if I had a Wood cage would be a RHP (Radiant heat panel). The wattage depends on the size enclosure. Your enclosure is 4’ but how deep and how tall??
This is what I use. I mount my RHP (with screws) on the Hot Side of the enclosure. This gives me 90 at the Hot spot and that gives me 78-80 degrees at the Cool spot. This is a perfect setup option and the most advanced IMO. I use a Herpstat (Thermostat) to run the RHP. The “Herpstat 1” is all you need to run one heat source. I use herpstat 2’s as i use one Thermostat to heat 2 enclosures. I’ll send you links so you understand. The Herpstat is the most advances Thermostat on the market and its been leading the industry for decades.
The cost of these two products are aprox $145 for the Herpstat Shipped and $100-$130 for RHP shipped. Yes its a bit pricey, but its Top quality and they last forever. The Radiant Heat panels I buy are from Pro Products. Reptile Basics also makes some but I have no experience with their product.
2) The Second way you can do this is with 2 heat mats or 1 heat mat and 1 CHE..
if using 2 Heat Mats Id run a Heat mat at 90 and the other at 80, or if using a CHE then just get the correct wattage CHE needed to get a 78 degree cool spot depending on the hight of CHE from the floor of enclosure.
Usually 12” high is around 60 watt, 18”-24” high you go 100 watt. Thats the distance from CHE to the Floor.
Honestly id spend the money on the Herpstat & RHP. They are “Set and Forget”... where worrying about the CHE and having 2 different heat sources is a Pain to me.
Anyway that you go Herpstats are the best Tstats out there and you can get them in different models depending on how many heat sources your plugging in to them. So you could still get a herpstat even if running 1 heat mat, 2 heat mats, or a Heat mat and a CHE. Here are some links.
Herpstat:
https://www.spyderrobotics.com/index...products_id=25
RHP:
http://pro-products.com/pro-heat/
And the other producer of a RHP:
http://www.reptilebasics.com/80-watt-radiant-heat-panel
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