Questions about t stats and racks

[OhClueless1]

I am trying to figure out how to run flexwatt heat tape in a way that would allow me to use one t stat? Is this possible? I was reading on other threads that some people are running three or four racks off from one tstat?

should the flex watt tape run under the tubs for belly heat?? or off the back wall of the rack? I am trying to understand what would be better for the snakes. I don't keep my ambient air temps in my house very high... in the winter it stays around 70 in my house and in the summer about 75 and I am concerned that during the winter I will have to provide another heat source to keep my temps up.

Right now I am using glass tanks which is all well and good... my temps stay pretty good but I am using heat lamps which I don't like... bad for the humidity etc etc. So I want to leave out the heat lamps and just use the flexwatt tape.

Any Ideas?

[Sparky1]

Either way works, alot of people preffer one over the other. So that is kind of your choice, i think your big issue will be that with your room that cool your cool side temps are not going to be warm enough. Since you would only have one heat source at the back either way you did it. Multiple racks on 1 t-stat can be done as long as the wattage rating of the t-stat is not exceeded.

[littleindiangirl]

I know we were talking last night about this lol, and I should have added some things.
Our room is cool all year round, we use flexwatt in the back for belly heat, and we have it running from the top of the rack and weaving shelf by shelf down to the bottom, so we only have to wire it once. The flexwatt being woven gives some more heat to the ambient temps, so you won't really have to contend with that problem. We have three sides of the rack insulated with that blue insulation board used for housing. One side is reflective (inside), and the other will be blue or black. Cut to size with a utility knife, and your good to go.
Our temps in the room consistently drop to 68 at night, so perhaps instead of pulling out the tubs the long way, have them go in sideways, just to minimize the distance from the heat tape. There will be enough room in the 32 quart for thermoregulating.
If you'd like, I can snap some pics of our setup, I hope everything makes a little more sense.

[OhClueless1]

That would be excellent if you could show some pics! I am drawing a complete blank on weaving part... lol

32 quarts... my snakes are just babies right now... will this be too big for them? I don't think either snake is over two foot yet and are 6 months old. The tubs are another question... I want a rack that is versatile and bigger tubs can be used later as they grow. I already have a larger enclosure in the works for my boa (not to mention the hubby is still going on about that 7 ft coastal carpet <sigh> I keep telling him he is going to have to wait till we get the other three situated. But he has tunnel vision.)

I tried setting some tubs up a bit ago and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get my temps up and gave up for a few weeks... then got thinking about how it stays on the cool side in my house which got me thinking about how I am going to use an alternate heat source in a tub. So I was wondering..... what if I used like two strips of flexwatt... I would have to run two t stats (maybe not?) but keep one on the hot side at 95 one on the cool side at 80. I really want to get rid of the heat lamp I use for the glass tanks... my temps fluctuate a lot especially this last week when it was 70 degrees for a couple days.... messed everything up which is what got me back to thinking about a rack again. A couple of 10 g tanks aren't too bad right now but it will be a problem heating a bigger glass tank later.

Whatcha think?? lol

[Halfdawg]

Here is a link

http://www.reptilebasics.com/images/...t_parallel.pdf

[littleindiangirl]

Here's our rack before we wired it up. The red line is the way we weaved the flexwatt back and forth to help with the ambient temps.


Chris made it to fit both 32 qt and the 12 qt for the youngins. It slides in sideways, and we also have the insulation board surrounding the 3 sides.

Does that help ya?

[littleindiangirl]

oh yea, I didnt say this before, but the flexwatt is in the back lol

[Reptilian]

would have to run two t stats (maybe not?) but keep one on the hot side at 95 one on the cool side at 80.

You can use two pieces of flexwatt per tub, one for the cool and one for the warm side. You'll need to get a two output tstat to make it work though. Herpstat II has one with two seperate outputs, so one plug will be for the hot and one for the cool. Just make sure when wiring your flexwatt that the combined wattage doesn't exceed the wattage that the tstat can hold.

Hope that helps a bit.

[OhClueless1]

Yeah I have been looking at the herpstat IIs... one of those have to wait till taxes items lol

Thanks for the help... I think I have a much better idea of what I need to do now.

[nixer]

Yeah I have been looking at the herpstat IIs... one of those have to wait till taxes items lol

Thanks for the help... I think I have a much better idea of what I need to do now.

thats a great tstat btw i love mine and i have the pro too.