just thought i'd post the results of our tests, as our buzzed soldering turned into quite a fun science experiment haha

basically.. i daisy chained 2 shelves - 1 shelf was wired using the clamps, and it took about 15 minutes to get kindof warm.....

the 2nd shelf had the wires soldered on, and that heated up in a matter of seconds....

one last Q.. i bought the 3 inch heat tape.. how hot does that get? it doesn't feel as warm as the heat tape in my 28 qt juvenile rack that i've been using for a year now with no problems.. the t-stat is set to 100, and the heat tape gets to ~92