getting temps dialed in an AP T8

[miatb]

hey guys i haven’t posted on here in a while but i had a question about getting the temps right in an animal plastics T8 enclosure. i recently moved my bp into this enclosure after having him in a tub for a year and am having difficulty getting the temps right. i am heating the enclosure with a pro products heat panel connected to a thermostat with the temperature probe situated on the hot side about halfway down the back, right now i have the thermostat set to 85 but i’m not sure if that’s the best temp to have it at. i had taken a day or so before i put my bp in to try to get the temps right and i thought i had it down but apparently not. they seem to fluctuate quite a lot, sometimes the cool side will be where i want it (~78) and then sometimes it will drop down a lot (~73). and the surface temp on the hot side will usually be where i want it (88-90) but the inside of the hot side hide will be low 80’s. is this normal? i guess i am just wondering what temps are the most important, i’m guessing floor surface temps but i would love any advice. i’ve been using a heat pad and che before this and i had my temps dialed in so in just having a little trouble with this new setup. any advice is very appreciated.

[jmcrook]

What’s the ambient in the room? I find that my T8s start to dip low on the cool side when the room gets under ~70-72°. Running 65watt Pro Heat panels with the thermostat probe fed through the heat panel cord channel (had AP install the panels) and hanging halfway down the height of the enclosure set to 87°.


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[miatb]

What’s the ambient in the room? I find that my T8s start to dip low on the cool side when the room gets under ~70-72°. Running 65watt Pro Heat panels with the thermostat probe fed through the heat panel cord channel (had AP install the panels) and hanging halfway down the height of the enclosure set to 87°.


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yes that is probably the reason, i would say the temperature in the room is usually high 60s to 70 but i almost never put the heat on so it’s likely to get below that sometimes. i was also wondering what other people had their probes and thermostats set to and it sounds like we have similar setups so that is comforting to me. does it matter if the temperature on the cool side fluctuates a bit if the hot side stays consistently warm? because i haven’t found the hot side to dip much, just the cool side. thank you for your insight.

[JRLongton]

I have almost the exact same set up as you: AP T8, pro-panel RHP (75w in my case), Herpstat 6 controlling, basement room currently 71 F. My thermostat probe is dangling in the rear corner of the "cool" side about an inch above the aspen substrate. The Herpstat is set for 80 F in this enclosure. I just checked, and surface temps on the "cool" are mostly 77-78 F. Warm side has up to 88-90 F, but the top of the "hot" hide reads 96 F. That high is only on the top, inside the hide its 90 F.

Based on this, I'd say reposition your thermostat probe to the cool side.