Another headache from living in a very old home

[dadofsix]

So, its been quite cold here where I live in southwestern Virginia. The house I'm living in is well over a hundred years old and has beautiful high ceilings. Now, heat being what it is, I usually have to use a fan to circulate the air in the living room where the snakes are to bring the warm air down and keep the ambient temp in the room up. I am using an UTH (on a thermostat) and two CHE's per terrarium -- one 100 watts and one 60 watts. These are both on in-line dimmers. Usually, I put the 60 watt CHE on the cool side during winter but, this winter I've been forced to put them both on the warm side.

The CHEs in both cages are running maxed out in both cages and my Thermostat is set on 93 for the UTH in both cages. Yet, because it's been so cold I've been struggling to keep the ambient temps in a healthy range (I do check every few hours using an infrared thermometer). I was looking for ways to safely increase the ambient temps in the terrariums when I though of the two ceramic tower heaters i had for when I'm visited by relatives from the south that freeze when the temps get below 60°. I put them underneath the terrarium stands and set the thermostats on them and, viola! I was getting the ambient temps where I wanted them. They're about a foot below the bottom of the terrarium so I believe they'll be safe.

NOW THE PROBLEM . . On Saturday it was really cold outside and my furnace was struggling mightily to keep the house warm. I was getting ready to run some errands and decided to put the setting of both heaters on high. I ran my errands and, on my return, found everything as it should be Then I decided to watch the football playoffs. I turned my TV on and, with 30 minutes, POP! -- the TV stopped working. The plug for the TV set AND the plug for one of my terrariums stopped working. Yep, you guessed it, a flipped circuit-breaker. I went down into the cellar and popped it back on. When I went back upstairs, everything was on again. Back to the playoff game and, again, within fifteen minutes, POP! -- the same two plugs went off again. After a few minutes of deductive reasoning, I turned both of the ceramic heaters off. I would far rather one of my snakes be a little chilly overnight than to freeze because of a flipped circuit breaker. Fortunately, there were no further problems that night.

Today is Monday and there hasn't been a recurrence of the "breaker" problem. I've actually started to use the heaters again (on the low setting). For the past nine hours there hasn't been a problem. The snakes seem content. Unfortunately, I haven't the nerve to use them at night when I'm sleeping or when I'll be away from home for an extended period. I don't want to put the snakes in a position where I would not be aware of the problem much less be able to fix it. I suspect that it had something to do with the draw of the heaters on the high setting (1500 watts on high as opposed to 900 watts on low). I sure wish I had the electrical training to know how to safely address this situation.

Sorry for the length of the post but I suspect that I'm not the only one living in a very old home in a very cold climate. I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this post. If it's not the right place, please feel free to move it to the proper place.

<><Peace

[c0r3yr0s3]

So, its been quite cold here where I live in southwestern Virginia. The house I'm living in is well over a hundred years old and has beautiful high ceilings. Now, heat being what it is, I usually have to use a fan to circulate the air in the living room where the snakes are to bring the warm air down and keep the ambient temp in the room up. I am using an UTH (on a thermostat) and two CHE's per terrarium -- one 100 watts and one 60 watts. These are both on in-line dimmers. Usually, I put the 60 watt CHE on the cool side during winter but, this winter I've been forced to put them both on the warm side.

The CHEs in both cages are running maxed out in both cages and my Thermostat is set on 93 for the UTH in both cages. Yet, because it's been so cold I've been struggling to keep the ambient temps in a healthy range (I do check every few hours using an infrared thermometer). I was looking for ways to safely increase the ambient temps in the terrariums when I though of the two ceramic tower heaters i had for when I'm visited by relatives from the south that freeze when the temps get below 60°. I put them underneath the terrarium stands and set the thermostats on them and, viola! I was getting the ambient temps where I wanted them. They're about a foot below the bottom of the terrarium so I believe they'll be safe.

NOW THE PROBLEM . . On Saturday it was really cold outside and my furnace was struggling mightily to keep the house warm. I was getting ready to run some errands and decided to put the setting of both heaters on high. I ran my errands and, on my return, found everything as it should be Then I decided to watch the football playoffs. I turned my TV on and, with 30 minutes, POP! -- the TV stopped working. The plug for the TV set AND the plug for one of my terrariums stopped working. Yep, you guessed it, a flipped circuit-breaker. I went down into the cellar and popped it back on. When I went back upstairs, everything was on again. Back to the playoff game and, again, within fifteen minutes, POP! -- the same two plugs went off again. After a few minutes of deductive reasoning, I turned both of the ceramic heaters off. I would far rather one of my snakes be a little chilly overnight than to freeze because of a flipped circuit breaker. Fortunately, there were no further problems that night.

Today is Monday and there hasn't been a recurrence of the "breaker" problem. I've actually started to use the heaters again (on the low setting). For the past nine hours there hasn't been a problem. The snakes seem content. Unfortunately, I haven't the nerve to use them at night when I'm sleeping or when I'll be away from home for an extended period. I don't want to put the snakes in a position where I would not be aware of the problem much less be able to fix it. I suspect that it had something to do with the draw of the heaters on the high setting (1500 watts on high as opposed to 900 watts on low). I sure wish I had the electrical training to know how to safely address this situation.

Sorry for the length of the post but I suspect that I'm not the only one living in a very old home in a very cold climate. I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this post. If it's not the right place, please feel free to move it to the proper place.

<><Peace

You're overloading the circuit. Just get a thick gauge extension cord or 2 and plug them into a different room that is running a different circuit and you should be fine. My experience comes from my FIL that has been an electrician for over 30 years. That is just a temporary fix to your problem. Unfortunately, you're gonna have to have your house rewired and a new circuit breaker. My house is 60+ years old and the code has changed drastically over the years. If you have any extra space on your current breaker box, you can add a circuit and new wiring just for one of the rooms to lighten the load

[bcr229]

Old houses are often sieves and installing better insulation, windows, and doors pays off over time with lower heating and A/C bills.

My house was initially built with "contractor grade" aluminum frame single-pane windows. Most of these were later replaced with vinyl double-pane upgrades, but for the few that were not, I found that a roll of 3 foot x 75 foot x 3-mil clear plastic was helpful with sealing them. Just cut pieces slightly larger than the window and use packing tape to attach them to the molding or wall around it. It's not a perfect solution but it stops the heat exchange from air leaking around the window.

If your furnace still can't keep up you may have to run space heaters, either electric or kerosene, in your reptile room. As was pointed out you'll probably have the electric heaters using a separate circuit by running an extension cord to an outlet a good ways away, or you'll trip breakers.

[CALM Pythons]

Like you already know its to much on that circuit.. What I did is put each room in my house on a separate circuit and it stopped my problems.. For now as the above stated, use a extension cord and use a plug that runs on another circuit that doesn't have anything much running on it. I bet your Refrigerator or something else is on a common wall plug instead of its own circuit and that could trigger that breaker to pop if its the same as the TV, UTH and 2 CHE's are on. Thats common in older homes. Now just to settle your mind, I had my snakes on Belly Heat alone for almost 20 years (1987 to 2005) without anything raising ambient. Of course now days there is a lot more research and better ways to do things as I now use RHP's, but your snake will keep its temp regulated just fine on Belly heat when its really cold. If your worried put another UTH on the cool side so it doesn't go under 81.
Its been 0 to -17 here in NY.


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[dadofsix]

Thanks very much for your replies. Double-paned windows were installed throughout the two-story house two years ago. Insulated vinyl siding also. This has just been a pretty rough winter, so far.

The electrical service is probably less than thirty years old. My step-dad was a master electrician and, years ago on one of his visits here from Florida, did a thorough check of the electrical system (not for me, mind you, he had grand-kids to protect! lol). His verdict? "The guys who put that system in certainly knew what they were doing." Coming from him, that was high praise.

There are actually two circuit breakers controlling the living room. Two wall outlets (one of which has the do-dads for one terrarium plugged into it) are on a breaker that didn't trip. On the circuit breaker that was tripping, there are also two wall outlets and the ceiling lamp on it (the lamp was off at the time). The TV was on one plug in this breaker and, across the room, one terrarium with all its electronic "do-dads" was on the other plug. (The "do-dads" for both terrariums are a UTH, two CHEs, the thermostat, and two in-line dimmers -- everything all plugged into an A/C strip. The heater for both terrariums is plugged into the other space on the wall outlet near it.

While everything seems to be working well (with the heaters on the low setting), it appears that hiring an electrician to put heavier wire in the living room and leading to the circuit box is in my near future. (sigh)

<><Peace

[Spookychief]

My mother in law is going through a similar issue in her house with her bearded dragons. She has the dragons in 125gallon and 40L glass enclosure and she couldn't hold the temps up in the cages, so all I did is went over there and wrapped the cages in foam insulation board and it brought the temps back up to where they are suppose to be. She took the boards down and painted them so they didn't look so ridiculous lol, but Maybe something like that would work for you. We live in Wisconsin btw and we are constantly combating negative temps here. Or heavy blankets if you have them laying around anything to help hold that heat in.

[CALM Pythons]

Thanks very much for your replies. Double-paned windows were installed throughout the two-story house two years ago. Insulated vinyl siding also. This has just been a pretty rough winter, so far.

The electrical service is probably less than thirty years old. My step-dad was a master electrician and, years ago on one of his visits here from Florida, did a thorough check of the electrical system (not for me, mind you, he had grand-kids to protect! lol). His verdict? "The guys who put that system in certainly knew what they were doing." Coming from him, that was high praise.

There are actually two circuit breakers controlling the living room. Two wall outlets (one of which has the do-dads for one terrarium plugged into it) are on a breaker that didn't trip. On the circuit breaker that was tripping, there are also two wall outlets and the ceiling lamp on it (the lamp was off at the time). The TV was on one plug in this breaker and, across the room, one terrarium with all its electronic "do-dads" was on the other plug. (The "do-dads" for both terrariums are a UTH, two CHEs, the thermostat, and two in-line dimmers -- everything all plugged into an A/C strip. The heater for both terrariums is plugged into the other space on the wall outlet near it.

While everything seems to be working well (with the heaters on the low setting), it appears that hiring an electrician to put heavier wire in the living room and leading to the circuit box is in my near future. (sigh)

<><Peace

A easy fix (what I did) would be to run 1 NEW wall plug to the Breaker Box wherever your setup will be. I cut a hole in my wall, fished the Electrical wire down to the basement after drilling a little here and there and added one 20 amp breaker switch. (yellow for 20 amp like Kitchens & Bath instead of White for 15 common plugs). Now nothing else is running on that Breaker except the Herpstat, 2 RHP's, 2 LED lights in the enclosures & all are on a Good Quality 5 plug Strip. It has worked perfectly since.


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[Craiga 01453]

I feel your winter weather pain. It's been the coldest winter I ever remember here in MA.

I ended up buying 1/2" foam board insulation and basically cut pieces to size to essentially wrap my enclosures. I covered the back, sides and top and taped the back and sides together so it just slides over the enclosure, and it has helped immensely.

When spring rolls around I'll remove them, label and store them and be good for next winter. Although by Then I hope I've switched over to pvc...

[larryd23]

While everything seems to be working well (with the heaters on the low setting), it appears that hiring an electrician to put heavier wire in the living room and leading to the circuit box is in my near future. (sigh)<><Peace

I think bringing in an electrician is an excellent idea.

I AM NOT AN ELECTRICIAN, BUT... Looking at the list of devices you are using I could only come up with about 500 watts. 500 watts divided by 120 volts equals approximately 4 amps, which should not trip your breaker. Your typical hair dryer will use around 1500 watts on high heat. My fear is that something else may be amiss.

My house was originally built in the 1960. When I purchased it in 2000, it had a 60 amp electrical service with 8 breakers. The first thing I did was upgrade my service to 200 amps and added a breaker box with 30 breakers. Over the years, working on my house I have been amazed at the 'creativity' of the previous owners. I actually discovered that the original single overhead light fixture in my kitchen was providing the electrical connections to three rooms in my house. When I removed the light fixture I found a spider web of wires connected to it. As my electrician explained to me, the wiring wasn't a problem years ago because they didn't have self-cleaning ovens, microwaves, and hair dryers in every bathroom.

Hopefully, your step-father still has some local contacts who will give you a good assessment and estimate.

[CALM Pythons]

I feel your winter weather pain. It's been the coldest winter I ever remember here in MA.

I ended up buying 1/2" foam board insulation and basically cut pieces to size to essentially wrap my enclosures. I covered the back, sides and top and taped the back and sides together so it just slides over the enclosure, and it has helped immensely.

When spring rolls around I'll remove them, label and store them and be good for next winter. Although by Then I hope I've switched over to pvc...

PVC or not this weather is kickin my butt too. I have over sized RHP's from Bob at Pro Products and my temps still drop at night.. I cant stand covering the enclosures because winter is when I'm home and I like to look in at them all the time. What I found is the biggest loss of heat is the Glass. I put a 4'x2' 1/2" piece of Foam insulation board over the glass and that fixed the problem 100%. What good is that for Display Enclosures hahahahaha. Im thinking about asking about some kind of insulated vacuum seal glass or something. Of course if the Glass was any thicker the problem would be the slider tracks and how the glass indents on the sides of the PVC. It would have to be routed wider and that wouldn't be worth the trouble or the chance of me screwing it up.


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