BP's IN SUMMER

I have a question for everyone...When summer comes most people put AC's in the windows, my family has central air and the little AC's that go in the windows... well obviously my house is going to get cold... so how can I keep my temps up if my room is going to be cold? I do have a screen porch connected onto my house I can put him on and it's nice there but I don't really want to have to do that..


any tips?

What do you have your bp in? Tub or tank?

why do you want your house cold in the summer? Doesn't seem very energy efficient...:(

I know it's always like that in the South and it makes me mad! I swear they keep the indoor temperature at like 73 in the winter and 67 in the summer! :rage: WHY?! :rage:
It's expensive and wasteful!

Sorry I don't mean to go off on you, especially if it's not your fault, but I would recommend requesting that your house not be kept colder during the summer than it would be during the spring. (Don't know who you live with, so it's kind of hard to say exactly what you should do)

I've actually been a little worried about the summer, because we're actually going to have to use our AC! I'll have to actually keep the house below 80 all the time :(

It's in a tank, but I sort of made my closet the designated area for the snake and my lizard so it's not in the way and my cat can't get at the tanks. I understand what you say about the energy but honestly I can't breath at all with it very hot [it gets extremly hot here in summer] so having just the window open doesn't help.. I am willing to sacrafice myself for the snakes being but I do have other pets in my room and it's not fair to them.. I am not exactly sure what I am going to do and how much AC would effect the snake. I have a UTH on the side as a backup heat source but usually the overhead lamp is fine.


I'll see what happens, but I'm sure other people would have the same issue during the summer.

I assume an UTH and a heat lamp would be suffcient to keep him warm. If he is in the closet the heat should stay in from the light and uth, In other words the ambient temp should be warm in the closet so maintaing the proper tems shoudlnt be too difficult.

Thants just my opinion though..

Im sure someone else coiuld help you out more so than i can

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Originally Posted by mtxsub7

It's in a tank, but I sort of made my closet the designated area for the snake and my lizard so it's not in the way and my cat can't get at the tanks. I understand what you say about the energy but honestly I can't breath at all with it very hot [it gets extremly hot here in summer] so having just the window open doesn't help.. I am willing to sacrafice myself for the snakes being but I do have other pets in my room and it's not fair to them.. I am not exactly sure what I am going to do and how much AC would effect the snake. I have a UTH on the side as a backup heat source but usually the overhead lamp is fine.


I'll see what happens, but I'm sure other people would have the same issue during the summer.

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no I understand, and I don't think you should turn off the AC completely, but why can't you turn it on medium or low instead of leaving it on high all the time? 75 degrees is the same temperature year round (or 72 or whatever)!
I mean, you need to keep the heat at least down to 80, or else you won't be able to maintain a cool side. I definitely support using the AC when you need it, I just don't see why you would want it to be cooler than necessary (for you I mean, not for the snake...I can definitely understand why you might not want it to be 80 degrees all the time)

We had to insulate our BP's racks and tubs during the summer. We kept the air conditioner around 68 constantly, but the housing insulation foam board kept everything snug and warm for the BP's.

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Originally Posted by soy.lor.n

no I understand, and I don't think you should turn off the AC completely, but why can't you turn it on medium or low instead of leaving it on high all the time? 75 degrees is the same temperature year round (or 72 or whatever)!
I mean, you need to keep the heat at least down to 80, or else you won't be able to maintain a cool side. I definitely support using the AC when you need it, I just don't see why you would want it to be cooler than necessary (for you I mean, not for the snake...I can definitely understand why you might not want it to be 80 degrees all the time)

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yeah no problem.. I never actually said if I left it on high/medium/low though.. So don't assume. I usually do have it on low because high is too loud for my room, but I will figure this out.


thanks for replies and any other replies I will check out in a bit

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Originally Posted by soy.lor.n

no I understand, and I don't think you should turn off the AC completely, but why can't you turn it on medium or low instead of leaving it on high all the time? 75 degrees is the same temperature year round (or 72 or whatever)!
I mean, you need to keep the heat at least down to 80, or else you won't be able to maintain a cool side. I definitely support using the AC when you need it, I just don't see why you would want it to be cooler than necessary (for you I mean, not for the snake...I can definitely understand why you might not want it to be 80 degrees all the time)

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I don't know about you, but living in the north like I have my whole life, 75 is too warm for me, especially in our muggy as all hell summers. I prefer it to be around 68 degrees in my house. ;) Don't go bashing him just because he prefers it cool. I loooove for it to be cool in my house. I'd have the AC blasting all the time if I could. :8:

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Originally Posted by mtxsub7

yeah no problem.. I never actually said if I left it on high/medium/low though.. So don't assume. I usually do have it on low because high is too loud for my room, but I will figure this out.


thanks for replies and any other replies I will check out in a bit

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Well I mean I wasn't assuming anything, you said it gets cold in your room, which to me indicates that you have it higher than you need it. I really don't mean to be rude or anything, it's just that climate over control is one of my pet peeves. Has been since high school when it I had to carry a coat to class but would break a sweat just stepping outside in a tank top and shorts!

I second the insulation though, for when it's cold. I have some on my tank that I needed for the first couple weeks I had my girl. It was unseasonably cold in Atlanta :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

I don't know about you, but living in the north like I have my whole life, 75 is too warm for me, especially in our muggy as all hell summers. I prefer it to be around 68 degrees in my house. ;) Don't go bashing him just because he prefers it cool. I loooove for it to be cool in my house. I'd have the AC blasting all the time if I could. :8:

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I'll admit what I did assume is that since he doesn't have the AC on now, that whatever temperature it is now isn't too hot. But also it seems that it's not too cold for the BPs. My question is just why do people need for it to be colder in the summer than in the spring/winter/fall?
If you like it 68, then that's fine, as long as you keep it 68 (or cooler) in the cooler months. Anything else just boggles my mind.
I personally keep it about 65 in the winter and 78ish in the summer, so it's pretty much always uncomfortable unless the weather is just nice lol.

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Originally Posted by soy.lor.n

I'll admit what I did assume is that since he doesn't have the AC on now, that whatever temperature it is now isn't too hot. But also it seems that it's not too cold for the BPs. My question is just why do people need for it to be colder in the summer than in the spring/winter/fall?
If you like it 68, then that's fine, as long as you keep it 68 (or cooler) in the cooler months. Anything else just boggles my mind.
I personally keep it about 65 in the winter and 78ish in the summer, so it's pretty much always uncomfortable unless the weather is just nice lol.

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Nope, I got the thermostat at 68 all the time. It's 68 out today... I'm in love with the cool side. ;) I gotta say live and let live for this one.

what kind of housing insulation? and how do you set it up? got any pics of that?

My house is never really really cold, but it's always going to be colder than my BP's need. and it's even worst this past two weeks because of family from alaska being in town and being too hot all the time. if I didn't lower my temps in the house, they would have sufficated. Right now I have fleece blankets wrapped around the tanks to keep their temps up. I was looking at getting a second set of UTH's to put on the cold side on lower temps than the hot so that it keeps both sides at the right temp.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by soy.lor.n

I'll admit what I did assume is that since he doesn't have the AC on now, that whatever temperature it is now isn't too hot. But also it seems that it's not too cold for the BPs. My question is just why do people need for it to be colder in the summer than in the spring/winter/fall?
If you like it 68, then that's fine, as long as you keep it 68 (or cooler) in the cooler months. Anything else just boggles my mind.
I personally keep it about 65 in the winter and 78ish in the summer, so it's pretty much always uncomfortable unless the weather is just nice lol.

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We also keep our home very cool in the summer - I like to sleep under a comforter, even in the summer. We "might" have turned on the heat three nights this year. But we are also insulated on three sides by other apartments.

To the OP - you say you keep them in a closet - is running a small space heater in the closet an option if you need to do that?

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Originally Posted by Kalitta

what kind of housing insulation? and how do you set it up? got any pics of that?

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At the home depot or Lowe's if you go down by the building materials, you can find an aisle of foam board. Some is pink, some is black on one side, shiny on the other, some is blue with the metallic coating on the other side. They come in really large boards. We use the 1 inch thick size, blue with a shiny side.

You can ask an associate at Home depot to cut it down to the size you need, although you need to buy the whole sheet I believe. It's best if you know what size panels you need before you ask them to cut it to get roughly the size you need instead of them just cutting it in half and then your stuck with trying to make it work with two little pieces.

We tape up the cut edges, and Velcroed the panels around the 3 sides of the rack, and on the top and bottom. It worked really well to keep the ambients up in the rack regardless of how cold it was in our room.

Well since it only comes in 4'x8' pieces I have some left over for anyone in the Atlanta area :P
I painted the side facing the glass to give me a pretty background, and covered up the other side too as to not make my roommates mad for it being ugly

Look at everyone talk about being cold and hot. ITS SPRING ENJOY IT!!! lol. Littleindiangirl has the right idea for insulation.

I have a single tub setup with a thermostat (herpstat II). Usually runs itself. Often though I need extra heat not only in the summer because of the air conditioner, but on those cold winter nights (old leaky apt).

For suplimental heat I use a metal clip lamp loaded with a 75 watt infared bulb, suspended approx. 1 1/2 feet above the tub, aimed at the center of the length of the tub. I have the lamp hooked up to a dimmer, set on a low-med setting. This usually gets the temps right in the sweet spot.

Although this does cause the humidity to go screwy and less consistant, so I usually have to keep an eye on it when I use the bulb.

Hope this helps.