New Habitat construction underway!

[OhhWatALoser]

LOL, seriously slow your insecurity. And by the way your still wrong. First off what does temperature change in a room have anything to do with wether heat tape creates ambient temperature?? Your arguing a point with an irrelevant side topic. Temperature change in a room is what a thermostat is for. He asked what size heat tape to use. I replied the 11" so it would create more ambient temperature without the floor getting as hot as say 6" heat tape to create the same amount of ambient temperature. You replied that heat tape does not create any ambient temperature change which is ridiculous. Guess what most homemade incubators use to raise ambient temps?? Heat tape. Guess what most rack manufacturers use to heat their tubs and create ambient temps, yup its heat tape. Guess what I've put under all the different cages that I've ever had from homemade to vision and so on to create floor heat and raise ambient temps...heat tape. Was I a bit rash when it comes to my reply, sure. heat tape raises ambient temps in my tubs 11 degrees over room temp with keeping floor temps at 91. In my incubator it raises the ambient temps 17 degrees over room temp with ease. For anyone who is still unsure about this google: "flexwatt create ambient temps" or call up any rack manufacturer and ask them if the heat tape will raise air temp in the tub. Get the 11" tape.

This is not facebook, so don't act like it is.

[norwegn113]

Ok so I was done with this thread, but I'll chime in one last time. I was not wrong in any part of my statement. Heat tape DOES raise ambient air temps. Seriously man. Your saying that it heats something that then in turn raises ambient air temps. Please tell me an application where heat tape does not touch anything first off?? AND.....I'll try to explain this with an example even a child can understand. If I had a mini fridge and I hung two feet of heat tape inside only hanging by the wire that powers it, NOT touching any part of the fridge at all and I shut the door. Your saying that the heat tape would not raise the temps inside the fridge because its not touching anything? Heat tape is not a microwave. The plastic casing on the heat tape is the material your talking about, and it is part of the heat tape. Your 5-10 degree max may be true through 3/4" wood, but sure isn't true on cages/tubs specifically made for reptiles. Like I said before it easily raises temps in my Vision tubs 11 degrees and that is with a thermostat. If I left it unregulated it would raise the ambient temps in my tubs over 20 degrees no problem. And my tubs have 1/16 to 1/8 inch gap around the entire top and thy have 9 holes drilled in the sides.

My personal advice: By the time you factor in time and materials your wood enclosure will not be a better choice over say a Vision cage or similar, sorry. I have vision cages going on 15 years old still like new cause they are one piece plastic. For dry climate animals wood is great, but what your trying to make is gonna be a tank. You can get a Vision 221 which has 128 square inches more floor space than what your building for $155 plus shipping.

that is exactly what im saying. Heat tape should never at any point reach temps higher than 100 deg. If you were to hang a piece like you stated it would not do much at all to raise internal temps. The plastic coating you speak of has no significant mass, therefore is not a good conductor of heat. ( try your experiment and let us know how it works. ) if what you say is true why then would people spend $100.00 on a radiant heat panel when they could just buy a piece of heat tape for $15.00 and put it on the ceiling instead? I will agree in the long run a vision cage is the better value and perhaps a better route for beginners. Wood cages can however create a look that cant be matched by any plastic product and if built correctly can last as long as any plastic cage system.

[norwegn113]

here is a pic of one of my triple stacked cages. Much more expensive than vision cages but a look of fine furniture. they are fiberglass lined so they will last and moisture is not a factor.

[Kaorte]

This whole thread kind of makes me laugh. Its a silly and unnecessary argument.


Do you know what an RHP is? It is essentially an insulated piece of flexwatt. Not exactly, but its the same idea. You can make one yourself if you want and I have in fact done it many times to do what exactly? Raise ambient temps. And yes, it only cost me like $15.

There are tons of ways to go about heating this enclosure. Some are better than others, some are safer than others, but none of them are wrong. You guys are arguing about the most non-essential item of BP husbandry... Ambient temps. These can fluctuate quite a bit and as long as that hot spot temp is stable, the snake is going to be just fine. The OP already said that the room ambient temps will be well within the recommended range. So whats all the fuss?

To say that heat tape will not increase ambient temperatures AT ALL is incorrect. They will increase, but it depends on what it is attached to and what your thermostat is set to. Obviously its not going to do the same work as a heat lamp, but for the purposes of ball pythons, it does plenty... unless your house is like 60 degrees or something.

My point is, blanket advice will get you nowhere.

[OhhWatALoser]

This whole thread kind of makes me laugh. Its a silly and unnecessary argument.


Do you know what an RHP is? It is essentially an insulated piece of flexwatt. Not exactly, but its the same idea. You can make one yourself if you want and I have in fact done it many times to do what exactly? Raise ambient temps. And yes, it only cost me like $15.

There are tons of ways to go about heating this enclosure. Some are better than others, some are safer than others, but none of them are wrong. You guys are arguing about the most non-essential item of BP husbandry... Ambient temps. These can fluctuate quite a bit and as long as that hot spot temp is stable, the snake is going to be just fine. The OP already said that the room ambient temps will be well within the recommended range. So whats all the fuss?

To say that heat tape will not increase ambient temperatures AT ALL is incorrect. They will increase, but it depends on what it is attached to and what your thermostat is set to. Obviously its not going to do the same work as a heat lamp, but for the purposes of ball pythons, it does plenty... unless your house is like 60 degrees or something.

My point is, blanket advice will get you nowhere.

Holy crap, Steffe came back!

[norwegn113]

This whole thread kind of makes me laugh. Its a silly and unnecessary argument.


Do you know what an RHP is? It is essentially an insulated piece of flexwatt. Not exactly, but its the same idea. You can make one yourself if you want and I have in fact done it many times to do what exactly? Raise ambient temps. And yes, it only cost me like $15.

There are tons of ways to go about heating this enclosure. Some are better than others, some are safer than others, but none of them are wrong. You guys are arguing about the most non-essential item of BP husbandry... Ambient temps. These can fluctuate quite a bit and as long as that hot spot temp is stable, the snake is going to be just fine. The OP already said that the room ambient temps will be well within the recommended range. So whats all the fuss?

To say that heat tape will not increase ambient temperatures AT ALL is incorrect. They will increase, but it depends on what it is attached to and what your thermostat is set to. Obviously its not going to do the same work as a heat lamp, but for the purposes of ball pythons, it does plenty... unless your house is like 60 degrees or something.

My point is, blanket advice will get you nowhere.

yes Im very familiar with heating equipment. I know the difference between heat tape and radiant heat panels and proper uses and installs. In fact im done trying to help. The OP can use whatever method they see fit and if they sandwich heat tape between 2 objects so be it take your chances and risk a fire I dont care. my animals are safe and sound. You were warned. Im done. I dont know why I even bother sometimes.

[BrianDallek]

that is exactly what im saying. Heat tape should never at any point reach temps higher than 100 deg. If you were to hang a piece like you stated it would not do much at all to raise internal temps. The plastic coating you speak of has no significant mass, therefore is not a good conductor of heat. ( try your experiment and let us know how it works. ) if what you say is true why then would people spend $100.00 on a radiant heat panel when they could just buy a piece of heat tape for $15.00 and put it on the ceiling instead? I will agree in the long run a vision cage is the better value and perhaps a better route for beginners. Wood cages can however create a look that cant be matched by any plastic product and if built correctly can last as long as any plastic cage system.

Ok so to be fair (to myself of course) I said that heat tape raises ambient temperature. I can not for the life of me see a situation where the heat tape would not be in contact with something. Either touching the bottom of the cage or the table the cage is on (unless we are talking about that new hover tape). Either way ambient temperature is raised when heat tape is used for floor heat. I mean one could argue that really it isn't even the heat tape and that it is the electricity powering the heat tape. Or in this case your saying that it is the material the heat tape is touching that is in fact raising the ambient temperature. Either way without the heat tape there is no heat or ambient temperature rise. So I feel my original statement was correct."I find that it raises the ambient temp" & "The tape heats the floor temp to 91 degrees in my tubs and that heat travels up... as heat tends to do and becomes trapped in the tub raising ambient temps to 84 degrees". Clearly I say that it heats the floor first and then raises up creating ambient temps. I was quickly met with "Heat tape doesn't raise ambient temps". Never once did I say that it would create enough heat for his cage he is building. I merely pointed out that 11" would be better than 6" because it would create more ambient temperature because it would be heating more surface area. That is it. So unless i reread this thread incorrectly I still stand behind what I said 100%.

Now somehow I have gotten into a hypothetical experiment (brought on by myself) on wether the heat tape alone by itself hanging in mid air will create ambient temperature. of course this has no practical application and is merely a pointless side track that I should have not brought up and I get enough of that from the wife. I do not have extra heat tape right this second, but I still feel even without it touching anything that it will still raise ambient temps. And honestly all i need to be right is 1 degree in my opinion. See by saying it creates no ambient temps your saying 0, no exception. by me saying it does that could be anything from .0001 degree to 100+ degree increase. My money is on my side of this, sorry.

[BrianDallek]

Ok so I found a flukers heat tape thing and am conducting the experiment right now. Unfortunately I do not have any extra flexxwatt wired up right now, but this should be good enough. Keep posted for the results. the tape is 6x11 (small) and the fridge is a pretty big wine fridge. I have a temp gauge in there now acclimating and will plug in the heat tape after about 10-15minutes with no thermostat.

[BrianDallek]

Ok so here is the mini fridge with acurite inside acclimating:



I took the acurite out of my utility room and it read 77 degrees and 25 humidity. Had to take out the middle shelf so the heat tape doesn't touch anything at all. It dropped down to 73 degrees and 22 humidity and doesn't appear to be going lower or changing so I am plugging in the heat tape. will give it a good 30min and see if this equivalent half a foot of 11" heat tape can raise the ambient temps in this bigger mini fridge by a degree or two.

[Kaorte]

Did you put a thermostat on it?

I mean, this is literally an incubator but instead of hanging in the middle, the heat is on the sides. It heats the air inside the fridge. Then again the probe is not directly on the flexwatt so the tape runs much hotter. Same concept. Works great.


And yes Matt, back for a spell. Had someone reply to an old diy thread I did. I see not much has changed here? Lol