Flexwatt Question

[mues155]

The flexwatt on my rack seems to be heating at different temps.
I have 5 shelves, all with 4ft cuts of flexwatt plugged into a powerstrip thats plugged into my thermostat.
But I do have different sizes of tape and I believe they are different wattages. Was i supposed t just buy one long strip of tape and weave in in the shelves or can i get different cuts but they have to be the same width and wattage?
I never thought of this before but I know my tapes are all off.

[OhhWatALoser]

same wattage and width.

increasing wattage obviously will be hotter tape
increasing width will be colder because there is less wattage per sq in.

[mues155]

same wattage and width.

increasing wattage obviously will be hotter tape
increasing width will be colder because there is less wattage per sq in.

it makes sense, but apparantly i hadnt thought of it before now that i realize the temps are off. Well do i need one continual tape? or can i just replace a few and have seperate cuts of tapes of the same size and wattage?

[OhhWatALoser]

it makes sense, but apparantly i hadnt thought of it before now that i realize the temps are off. Well do i need one continual tape? or can i just replace a few and have seperate cuts of tapes of the same size and wattage?

you can have separate cuts

[mues155]

you can have separate cuts

ok so as long as I stay under my thermostats max wattage (which is 700)
I could have 5, 4ft cuts of 11" flexwatt that run at 20 watts per foot. (that figures to be only 400 watts to run that much of flexwatt)
I figure my whole rack is going to be made up of adults in the next year so they will all be in 40+ qt. tubs anyways. The smaller ones i can just put a corner of their tub over the tape until then...kind of just thinking through type here but that sounds good to me anyways.
With adults do you guys use 11" flexwatt? I would think that would be a more suituable basking area than 4" coverage.

[Jessica Loesch]

A lot of people stay with the smaller size of flexwatt, and I may as well.

But yeah, definitely don't mix lengths and esp wattages.

[mues155]

Which of the smaller size do most of you guys use?
The 3in just seems a bit small for the adults. although 4in doesnt seem like a huge step up either.
And whats the big difference between 10 watts and 8 watts?

[Jessica Loesch]

I just know a lot of people say they use it but I can't give a constructive answer for you

as far as the difference between 8 and 10 watts. as you already experienced, heat differences.

[mues155]

lol ok thanks jessica!
I think im just going to go with 3" 10 watt tape all around then. I hope that will be enough heat for my bigger guys.

[Robyn@SYR]

We have used 3 inch flex watt to create hot spots for adult burms. It will cover all of your ball python needs.