Heating for plastic cage in a cold room

[Dragonviper]

I am purchasing a 35x23x12 plastic cage from repti-racks for a male ball python. The room where he will be kept will be around 78 during the daytime, but the nighttime drop will be in the upper 60's-low 70's. When winter comes [Nov/Dec] the nighttime temperature might drop into the lower 60's. I can't have the room heated so I was wondering if it is ok to use both a radiant heat panel and underbelly heat used in order to maintain the hot spot and ambient temperature [or do I only use on,if so which one]. Of course they will be controlled with a thermostat and the proper wattage of each heat source will be used.

[mainbutter]

Combining both is certainly better than just one.

Each will need its own tstat.

Even with both, it may be very difficult to get the temps up where you want them if your room temps ever get below 65.

[reptileexperts]

I use RHP on all my my plastic cages, but they are stacked in a wall 6x6x2. The room is kept around 78 during the day, and 75 during the night, and my RHP work at about 22% maybe 15% of the day to maintain the temperatures needed. UTH would be overkill, if combined, but may not keep ambience as well if used solely. If you have a light going inside as well, it does add to the ambient temperatures quite nicely (And bonus) it also creates a hot spot for the tank above the light (surprisingly 92-94 degrees usually).

Hope this helps.

[KMG]

You can't add a little floor heater? I keep my house cold and in the winter I rarely use the heater. I Just have a few little heaters I can keep on just in the areas I want instead of heating the whole place.

[Dragonviper]

How much would the floor heater cost? Where would I place it? With the floor heater would I be able to just have the underbelly heat? Would it heat up the entire room or just the area where the cage is? (A 15X15 foot room approx.)

[Dragonviper]

I'm looking for the most cost effective to keep his cage temperatures up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wyvj3sSNqI in the video it is said that that particular radiant heat panel wouldn't require a thermostat (buying a separate thermostat is an extra cost I cant afford with the extra 100 bucks for the radiant heat panel). I live in Florida (the temperature tends to be in the 70's-80's normally) but when we have the cold fronts come down the room temperature does get into the 60's. I'm planning for this drop in temperature since winter is just around the corner. If heating this plastic cage is too tedious I might go for this rack http://www.reptilebasics.com/iris-sw...y-or-back-heat with 4' flexwatt belly heat. Would the rack be better at keeping the ambiant tub temperature when it does get colder?

[kitedemon]

No racks are far worse at holding ambient temps.

My snake room rarely hits 68ºF in the winter, it is often low 60s. I have been running dual UTHs this controls the surface temps very well. I have insulated the enclosures with ridged foam insulation. It keeps the walls from dropping too much temps. The Ambient air temps are delivered from a 2 foot fluorescent (FLD) light fixture inside the PVCx enclosure. I also use a set of deep blue LED string light during the night. The FLD runs about 100ºF surface temps but unlike RADIANT Heat panels it is a conductive heat source and transfers heat to air and creates circulation. If planned out the circulation of air drives the ventilation and circulated warm air inside the enclosure. During the night the blue LED is on and its electronics and bulbs run in the low 90s this keeps the over night temps reasonable.

My surface temps hold 90/80 with no issues. The ambient temps at the coolest (just before sunrise) are 77-8 of so the lights come on and this temp rises a degree every few hours (due to insulation and general room temp changes) until just after supper where it caps at about 84-5ºF then it starts to drop a degree every few hours to repeat the cycle.

I have two radiant heat panels, they do not heat air. RADIANT heat... is the same as the sun it heats objects not air, the temperature on a mountain can be quite warm in the sun but still snow doesn't melt. The snow reflects radiant heat waves and the air remains cold so the snow remains frozen.

Besides lights are far cheaper.

[KMG]

A little heater is pretty cheap. The last one I bought was 30 bucks at Lowe's and it has a built in tstat.

Just like a regular fan,a heater should not be pointed at the animals cages. The heater should just add alittle heat to the room, not heat the cages.

Make sure to test the heater for several hours while you can monitor it to make sue it doesn't over heat the room. I doubt it could but better safe than sorry.

[RestlessRobie]

I have some custom built 4X2X1 enclosures that are basically XPVC and wood. I use Flexwatt for belly heat at about 92f. I use the Reptile Basics 40w Radiant Heat panel at 80f and did a little testig before I add the snakes. The temp of my room has to drop below 65f before the Heat Panel has to work above 50% so I think you should be fine. If needed you could add some foambaord insulation around 3 sides this woyuld keep some more heat in but I think you shouls be ok.

[apple2]

Also, make sure the heater doesn't smell like chemicals when it blows. I can't imagine that the fumes are healthy for you or your snakes, and I've had a couple of space heaters that smelled like they were being made when I turned them on...