Ambient Temperature Not High Enough - How to Remedy

[Myrmida]

Hi, there.

My 3-year-old ball python lives in a PVC cage that measures 3' wide, 2' deep and 1' high. The door is along the 3'-wide front, and it has some vents along the sides and back near the top. I have heat tape under the hot side with a thermostat to regulate the temperature, so I can keep it around 90. However, the ambient temperature in the cool side is too cool. Lilith doesn't seem to mind and hangs out in her cool hide regularly, but it's only in the 70-72 range, and I want her to be safe, healthy and happy.

How should I warm the ambient/cool side up? I could put another heat tape on the cool side and just heat it a little bit. I've also read on here about ceramic heatemitters and radiant heat panels - do you use those together with heat tape, or replace the heat tape? Which is better for a PVC enclosure like mine. I live in a pretty dry climate, but so far the humidity seems OK in the cage.

Thanks!

[Bodie]

Radiant heat panel will solve your ambient temp problem. The one cage where I use both a radiant heat panel and an UTH is my BP. RHP keeps his air temp steady at 81.5 and the UTH keeps a hot spot of 89. I also use pvc cages for all my snakes and they work great for controlling the ambient air temp. In all my other cages, I use just RHPs. I highly recommend pro products RHPs.

[Midwest]

I have a 20 gallon long tank but I run a UTH on the cool side set to 80 degrees. You could add more heat tape and keep it set cooler. It won't have much impact on the total ambient temps but will help with comfort on the cool side.

[Myrmida]

Thanks so much for your sensible advice. I think I'll take a look at radiant heat panels to combine with the UTH.

[Myrmida]

Just curious what range of wattage I should be looking at in radiant heat panel? The place I'm looking at has 28, 40, 80 and 120 watts.

I'm also not sure how I'll mount it inside the enclosure as my enclosure is only 1 foot high, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

[Bodie]

Just curious what range of wattage I should be looking at in radiant heat panel? The place I'm looking at has 28, 40, 80 and 120 watts.

I'm also not sure how I'll mount it inside the enclosure as my enclosure is only 1 foot high, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

80 watt would be fine. Even a 40 would work. The higher the wattage the bigger the physical size the RHP will be. Also higher the wattage, less work the RHP will need to maintain your ambient. With pro products RHPs, they come with holes in drilled on the rhp for mounting. They send bolts to mount it, but they are meant to go through whatever you are mounting it to. Since my cages are stacked, that would not work. My pvc cage wall are 3/8 thick so I went to the hardware store, go some small 3/8 long screws and screw it into the pvc. The screws are small enough that they don’t go through but have enough bite into the pvc that the RHP is secured. You just got to make sure the screw head isn’t to big for the mounting hole on the RHP. I think I used #8 or #6 size screw heads but I’m not positive (been a long time). Anyway that’s just how I did it.