Dimmers are not themostats...discuss

[Neal]

Dimmer switches work, but they are far from ideal. It may be working for you now, but what happens if your heat or a/c in your house fails and your ambient temps drop or rise, guess what, said dimmer switch is not going to adjust to that. Thermostats are always a better way to go, and I agree that they should probably be the only way to go. Dimmers are a crutch.

The same thing that would happen if my a/c in my house fails and just out of sheer luck the thermostat fails also. The temperatures will rise. The thing is I use 2x UTH & and a dual light system. from 6am-6pm the day bulb is on and from 6pm-6am the night bulb is on. With the night bulb full power it's 86 degrees, and with the day bulb 75% it's 88, will sometimes go to 90 on the Acurite but it's a Acurite issue, because the substrate stay's 88-89 from the day bulb. Now sure, if I just had one UTH then I could run a thermostat but for 4 different things it just wouldn't be feasible because then issues would occur. Also if the a/c went out at night it wouldn't make a difference because my house temps stay the same, now if it went out during the day it could be an issue, but luckily I work overnight so I'm home during the day so I honestly don't worry. Plus I monitor my temps via a wireless webcam that I can check from a browser or any phone so I can see the thermometer and I know if that thermometer ever read 90 then it's 92 under the day bulb. Sure it's not perfect but anything can go wrong at any point.

I used nothing but rheostats (dimmer switches) for many years before ever buying my first thermostat. Frankly thermostats weren't even an option because they didn't make them in a small plug-in variety with a remote temperature probe. The thermostats that you can now easily buy on amazon or at reptile basics simply didn't exist. And you know what? Rheostats worked just fine as long as you monitored the temperatures in other ways (IE: with a thermometer) . Rheostats don't adjust the temperature they just keep the power at a steady level.

A thermostat will keep your heating element at a specific temperature (say 90 degrees) so if the ambient temps in your room rise to 85 degrees or drop to 60 degrees your heating element should always stay at 90 degrees. A rheostat on the other hand will just limit the amount of power to the heating element and pays no attention to temperature. If you have the rheostat set so that your heat tape is at 90 degrees in a 70 degree room and your room temps drop to 60 degrees your heat tape temperature will be 80 degrees, if the room temp rises to 85 degrees your heat tape temperatures will be at 105 degrees.

So, as long as your room temperatures are stable dimmer switches work just fine, if your room is prone to wide temperature swings you should consider a thermostat instead.

Thanks for chiming in Mark. I do keep my room a set temp, it may vary one degree either way but other then that it's stable. I'm hoping to find something that will act as a fail safe and cut off the power if it see's a certain temperature which would cut off my UTH and bulbs. I'm sure they have something I just haven't found it yet.

[Raven01]

Dimmers can be useful if you are using heat lamps.
Price out reptile heat lamps and then check any farm supply store for their price on a 250W heat lamp.
Use the dimmer to dial down the output until your T-Stat stays in the on position and then bump it back up a hair and lock it down.
The filament in a 250W bulb is generally sturdier than in lower watt bulbs and, when run at a lower power output should have a significantly longer life.

So, dimmers can have a place in the hobby but, are by no means required.
While T-Stats are pretty much a basic requirement.

I'm hoping to find something that will act as a fail safe and cut off the power if it see's a certain temperature which would cut off my UTH and bulbs. I'm sure they have something I just haven't found it yet

You just perfectly described a thermostat.

[Mephibosheth1]

What other way than a dimmer would work to control a heat lamp if the heat lamp was used to heat only the ambient temp, but a UTH was used to heat the substrate??

[KMG]

If you use a cheap tstat you can have many issues. Using a good one like the Herpstat line really minimizes the risk involved.

The problem with a dimmer is they do not respond to the environment they are in. Like a few weeks back when my a/c had its free-on go out. The temp in my home went up but my tstats knew that and adjusted accordingly. A dimmer will not adjust and would run to hot. If I was away for a few days when this happened my tstat would handle the situation when a dimmer could do alot of damage to my collection.

Sure they can be used in a pinch but in no way are better than a good tstat.

[Rickys_Reptiles]

I've learned a lot, thanks for everyone who has participated in this thread!

[Anya]

This was a super informative thread. Thanks everyone!

What other way than a dimmer would work to control a heat lamp if the heat lamp was used to heat only the ambient temp, but a UTH was used to heat the substrate??

Personally I don't even use a dimmer on my lamps. I simply chose the right wattage's for my needs. I check temps daily with an IR gun, and although lamps don't stay the most stable temps, they're never too hot.

[Skiploder]

I used nothing but rheostats (dimmer switches) for many years before ever buying my first thermostat. Frankly thermostats weren't even an option because they didn't make them in a small plug-in variety with a remote temperature probe. The thermostats that you can now easily buy on amazon or at reptile basics simply didn't exist. And you know what? Rheostats worked just fine as long as you monitored the temperatures in other ways (IE: with a thermometer) . Rheostats don't adjust the temperature they just keep the power at a steady level.

A thermostat will keep your heating element at a specific temperature (say 90 degrees) so if the ambient temps in your room rise to 85 degrees or drop to 60 degrees your heating element should always stay at 90 degrees. A rheostat on the other hand will just limit the amount of power to the heating element and pays no attention to temperature. If you have the rheostat set so that your heat tape is at 90 degrees in a 70 degree room and your room temps drop to 60 degrees your heat tape temperature will be 80 degrees, if the room temp rises to 85 degrees your heat tape temperatures will be at 105 degrees.

So, as long as your room temperatures are stable dimmer switches work just fine, if your room is prone to wide temperature swings you should consider a thermostat instead.

Add me to the list of idiots who used rheostats for years.

To this day, I still use them on cages which are heated with RHPs. Go figure.

[Neal]

Dimmers can be useful if you are using heat lamps.
Price out reptile heat lamps and then check any farm supply store for their price on a 250W heat lamp.
Use the dimmer to dial down the output until your T-Stat stays in the on position and then bump it back up a hair and lock it down.
The filament in a 250W bulb is generally sturdier than in lower watt bulbs and, when run at a lower power output should have a significantly longer life.

So, dimmers can have a place in the hobby but, are by no means required.
While T-Stats are pretty much a basic requirement.


You just perfectly described a thermostat.

Actually I haven't and if you've read my previous post you'd understand that I would need two thermostats for even one tank which will not work in my book. I'm not against Thermostats and I've used them in the past. I need some kind of power switch that reads the ambient air temp so it can cut off all power supply that is running to it, this a thermostat will not do. Well not me say will not do as I could always have the probe on the wall and set the thermostat to say 78 so that way if the ambient air temp went up to that it'd shut it off. Though now I'm curious which thermostat have multiple plugins. Any ideas for anybody are welcome as I'm going to do this.

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Add me to the list of idiots who used rheostats for years.

To this day, I still use them on cages which are heated with RHPs. Go figure.

Skip, we're not idiots we're just brilliant scientists my friend.