250w red heat lamp too much?

[chrisdab]

I just bought this from walmart for $7. This thing gives off some serious heat. I am guessing it is too much for a terrarium.
How many watts do I need for a ball python? 60-75w?

[llovelace]

you will cook it with that wattage go with less wattage 60, or better yet a uth (under tank heater pad or flexwatt)

[Smith285]

I use a red 25w "party light" from walmart for the cool end... it's plenty for me. I would say nothing more than 60 is necessary, and could be potentially fatal

[Bruce Whitehead]

Are you keeping potatoes hot in a buffet or heating a snake?

Seriously, that is a ridiculously high wattage. I personally would never put a heat lamp on a snake. And if you have to, use it JUST get your ambient temps to 80 degrees. Your hot spot shoud be 90 degrees VIA an UnderTank Heater (UTH).

Just make sure your UTH is controlled with a thermostat preferably, or a minimally with a rheostat/dimmer.

Bruce

[dr del]

Hi,

Yoiks!

You could try controling that with a rheostat or thermostat just as you need to with the UTH but there is a threshold with bulbs below which they simply cut out all together.

You can try it but I suspect the amount of throttling you would need to do on the power to that bulb would be so high it would simply cut out and produce no heat whatsoever.

Mind you if you need to really heat up some F/T prey just before offering and own a welders mask and three foot tongs you might get some use out of it then.


dr del

[Neal]

That is extremely too much wattage, If you can't afford to get anything else, I would definately put that on a dimmer switch(though I don't think it supports 250w) and I would definately crank it almost all the way down. A 50w bulb would be fine.