Quote Originally Posted by Mike Cavanaugh View Post
What wall are you talking about? And what fire hazard?! How will you have a lower electric bill, even in the summer?
The tendency of female ball pythons to stop feeding when they reach subadult size (not all do this but it's not uncommon) is sometimes referred to the "wall". That's what I was referring to. I have experienced this so if lowering the heat could solve it, I'm all for giving it a try.
As for the fire hazard, running Flexwatt is a fire hazard, period. There's no getting around that. Yes, many keepers do run it and haven't had an issue. But the more electrical stuff you are running, the more chance of something malfunctioning and catching fire. From what I heard, it was Flexwatt that caused Bob Clark's fire and I'll bet when the dust settles it's going to be the cause of Pro Exotic's too. Obviously space heaters are fire hazards themselves but that's not what I'm running. I have a window unit that has built in heat so it's no more fire hazard than a home's central heat.
As for lower electric bill, it would be much lower in the summer by keeping the room at 81-84 (haven't determined yet where it will be) rather than 78. I live in South Texas and it gets very hot down here during the summer so by keeping the room warmer, the A/C isn't working so hard. This summer the A/C unit worked so hard due to the extreme heat that the building never cooled down where it needed to be and the compressor is now on it's last leg. The Flexwatt running didn't help matters. If I wasn't running Flexwatt and allowed the temps to just go up 3-6 degrees, I guarantee my electric bill would have been much lower and probably wouldn't be about to replace the A/C unit either. During the Spring/Fall, the days are going to be pretty close to that so it won't work hard at all. Heat would be needed on some nights but not too much. So 3/4 of the year I'm having an easier time keeping the ambient temps than it's current setting of 78 (FYI, due to the Flexwatt, the cool side of the tubs is actually 80, not 78). During the winter I will definitely see a spike but again, we don't have harsh winters too often. I understand not everybody is in this situation. If you live up North, trying to maintain these higher ambients rather than belly heat will likely cause your electric bill to go through the roof.
At any rate, this is an experiment that I'm being careful with. I'm not saying it will work for everybody but I think given the potential benefits, it's worth a try.