Idea for cooling crestie tanks??

Okay not sure if this will work or not. Seeing as how we don't have ac in this place :( I was think about buying an extra Ranco therm. cause it has heating and cooling options on it. Then getting two little clip on fans and hooking them up to the thermostat and using that to cool my crestie cages. That way it would be regulated. Or do you guys think it would burn out the motor in the fans and be a potential fire hazard?

Or should I just fork out the money for a window ac unit?

Kristy

i say a small window ac!


put the cresties on the floor (cooler), and have a fan or two in the room moving air around.



vaughn

Or you could invest in a water pump system to pump cooled water around. Not sure how that would work in a screen cage but I plan to do it if the garage gets too warm for the rats.

I'm curious about this also, because I'd like to keep them in my ball python room. *since its 82* in there* I was just curious for some options, good question Kristy :D

The whole fan thing isnt going to work very well unless its bringing in cool air. If not, its just going to circulate warm air. Yes, feeling a breeze helps but right after the fan turns off, its going to be just as warm as before.

Thanks everyone. Today Shaun and I went out and got a window ac unit :D They were on sale and I didn't want to spend all the money on the t-stat instead of buying a ac unit. It was HOT :sunny: HOT :sunny: HOT today. 107 last I saw and only 19% humidity here.

It sucks it only cools the down stairs but I just moved the Cresties down here and left the snake and heat loving leos upstairs.


Useing a fan and cool water, moving the cresties down to the floor worked rather well though. I did have to turn the fan on and off every half hour. I could tell the were getting stressed though so we went and got the ac unit.

Okay we are NOT addicted to our herps are we? LOL Won't buy an a/c unit until the poor gecko's need it. :D I'm just kidding with you hon, we are the same around here. We pick homes based on if there's a snake room or good ventilation for them LOL. Second bathroom? Well who needs that....where can my snakes live happily!!!!

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Okay we are NOT addicted to our herps are we? LOL Won't buy an a/c unit until the poor gecko's need it. :D I'm just kidding with you hon, we are the same around here. We pick homes based on if there's a snake room or good ventilation for them LOL. Second bathroom? Well who needs that....where can my snakes live happily!!!!

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LOL you are totally right. We didn't have much choice as far as the house we live in now goes, but we wanted OUT of the old one. I couldn't stand that place, it was so dark and depressing. So I found the brightest place I could.

My husband isn't really into the reptiles like I am. He likes them but just doesn't share the same passion I do. At lowes he kept saying " I can't believe I am buying ac for geckos" lol. It was also for me though, I don't sweat at all so I overheat and get really sick.

When we finally build our house after we finish cleaning up our credit (finally just about out of debt :D ) It will be really neat because Him and his Dad work together His dad owns a Construction company so we will get to customize a lot. Including a herp room :carrot:

You could have bought an ac unit just for the tank. Thermoelectric cooling units are tiny and perfect for cooling small enclosures. You can pick one up for under $30 and hook it right up to your Ranco. These are used in some wine refridgerators, and I used one to make a brumation chamber for corn snakes.

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Originally Posted by PythonWallace

You could have bought an ac unit just for the tank. Thermoelectric cooling units are tiny and perfect for cooling small enclosures. You can pick one up for under $30 and hook it right up to your Ranco. These are used in some wine refridgerators, and I used one to make a brumation chamber for corn snakes.

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Thats cool, I will have to look into those for future use if I need them. We really needed ac though. It gets so hot in this house.

Yeah, it sounds like you will all benefit from the ac. Those thermoelectric coolers are just a good thing to know about. They have a ton of uses.

Here's a link to some. Your need small fans with these, but you can find a pair of 40mm - 50mm fans on eBay for under $10 shipped.

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi...c_Coolers.html

These aren't the perfect size, but you get the idea. You can find some for about $30 that will cool a decent size enclosure.

How would you wire that, and would you just put it on top of the tank?

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Originally Posted by chris B

How would you wire that, and would you just put it on top of the tank?

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If you get just the wafer, most come prewired. You need a DC transformer ($5) to match the specs of the unit. One side gets hot and the other side gets cold, like an air conditioner, so you want to add some kind of heat sinc and a small computer fan. You can do it different ways, but you pretty much just hardwore the transformer to the wires that are connected to the unit. You can get one that runs at 12v and splice the 12v fan wires right to the transformer along with the thermo unit, then plug the transformer into the Ranco. These can't be used with proportional thermostats.

Edit, I would probably put it on the top. If your enclosure in wood or plastic you can drill vents in the side or back and mount it that way, too.

Thanks a bunch Jake for bringing those to our attention. I think I am going to order the stuff and keep it on hand. Main reason is the Cresties are downstairs with the ac, but getting more cresties very soon, I don't have room downs stairs for a bunch of geckos lol. Not to mention if the ac unit should malfunction, always good to have a back up device.

I will recommend these to people, I see the question of how to keep them cool all the time.

Thanks again,
Kristy