When i first started out with my snakes i bought an old melanin rack with heat wire. I used it all winter long and it kept my tubs at the right temperature, i would only have to change the temp settings on really cold days. I recently upgraded to an AP rack which is light enough to move around and more aesthetically pleasing but i have been running into problems keeping consistent temperatures.

When my room gets colder i find the heat tape starts to drop temp too. To improve this i have been using a space heater that comes with some cheap thermostat. Well last night the space heater did not turn on which caused the room to dip in temperature which also caused the heat tape to also dip in temperature, i dont want to worry about this so im looking to make improvements to the rack and my setup.

But even when i am using the space heater it will bump my ambient temperature to to about 80 cold side and 83 on the warm. I use my temp gun to see the temp in the hides and its usually around 90 on the hot side and 80 on the cold. Do i need a consistent ambient temperature outside of the hides to be at 90 (hot) 80 (cold) or is it ok if the temperatures in the hides stay at those temps?

Either way i am looking for a solution to help provide better ambient temperatures to make sure my heat tape does not loose its efficiency with the cold weather fluctuations. I have it set at 105 F which is i've heard is the highest to safely run it but it usually stays at 104.5 or so. I don't have a small room available to keep the rack and space heater to maintain a stable temperature just my large room with lots of windows.

I have been looking around at different options and haven't found anything that seems to jump out at me as the best way to modify my rack. I thought about using larger size heat tape to warm the entire back portion of the rack but if the cold weather will affect it as well its seems pointless for me. I also looked at Radiant heat panels which look like the best possible option but installing them and their performance im not to familiar with or how many i will need for a 6 high cb70 AP rack.

My main concern is really just raising the ambient temperature on the hot side of the rack. Any input would be appreciated, quick fixes while im doing more research into a permanent solution would be great as well.


Thanks