New Cool Side Heating idea!

[BPLuvr]

So my 17 year old suggested this:

Cover the shelf (including the FW) with sheet metal. Since it will conduct heat, the portion not directly over the FW, will absorb some of that heat! It works! Snakes will now have a cool spot around 77 at the coolest point!

Feedback??

My opinion is it won't. You can try an easy test of it by using something like aluminum foil unless you have the sheet metal available. The reason being is since your cool side will be absorbing heat it means your warm side will need to dissipate some. So to keep 92 on the hot side (you will most likely need a higher setting if using substrate such as aspen or cypress) the FW will either need to run non-stop (if using on-off t-stat) or run very warm 100+ to get the cool side up to 77 in a 65 degree room.

You mention not being able to use 3 sided for a rack? I was going to suggest if it was 3 sided you could mount a piece of FW (controlled by another stat) on the wall of the cool side or two if the warm side was the back and the cool side was the front open area.

I use this Lasko Heater but I do heat the room. If you didn't want to heat the room you could use a Ranco Thermostat with the probe at the front of the rack and plug the heater (any style even oil filled) into the power strip. That should allow you to heat the immediate area around the rack.