Opinions on new set up

[Myrepete]

This is my first post so please forgive me if its in the wrong place. To save a bit of money I am making my own snake rack. Ive seen a few people do it, so I'm gonna try. I'm going to be using the HDX 36" long by 24" wide plastic vented shelving unit from home depot with 41qt tubs for my adults. There will be 5 shelves and I was planning on using heat tape. There will be white panel board on each shelf to prevent escape and 1/4" on each side of the white board to allow air flow into the tubs. Since our house is on the low humidity I was planning on using a mix of coco husk to help with humidity and use a humidity box during shed.

But this is where I need some advice. We keep our house around 65-70f during the day and about 60f at night, during the winter sometimes it gets into the 50's. So I was looking into putting white panel board on three sides to help hold in heat, would this be a good idea? I'm struggling to figure out the heat tape as well. It is going to be used with a thermostat, just haven't figured out which I'll use yet. Each tub will have a 4" by 12" tape section, can all the tubs and heat tape be connected together and on the same outlet and thermostat? Also, do I need to put window shims on the outside of the tub near the tape to allow air flow to the heat tape? I'll most likely have reptile basics assemble the heat tape for me. Just have to figure out how to put them all together. For this style, does the thermostat prob tape to the bottom of the tube of should it be inside the tub?

Thank you in advance for answering!

Any ideas are welcome!

[gunkle]

The heat tape can all be connected together just make sure the thermostat you use is rated for the amount of juice your gonna need taking in all the heat tape. I believe is Watts per linear foot but could be wrong as I use RHPs. As far as temperature goes I think your gonna have problems as heat tape isn't meant to bring up the ambient temps more than a couple degrees. Can you put a space heater in the room this is going? 20 to 30 degrees is using it improperly as far as I know. Possibly if you close the rack of on all sides with only limited air vent. Hopefully someone with more experience with heat tape will chime in. Good luck.

[Meghenebk]

Got a large closet for the rack or can you add a space heater to the room? Or use full size wall insulation board panels and duct tape to build a total surround enclosure closet around the rack? Your temps are too cold for heat tape. Even if you ran 2 sets to cover the entire floor surface at the low and high temps, an air temp of 50-60 will be far too cold for the tape to increase the ambient enough to avoid respiratory issues.