Heat Panel Alternatives

[the enigma]

Hey guys,

I was going to use heat panels in a series of 4'x2'1' cages that i was going to build (for pythons). anyways the cages will be ply wood, and painted with drylock. my question is this; what is the best heat? how could i incorporate heat pads? is heat cable the way to go? I'd rather not buy a thermostat but i will if i have to. Dome lights are out because the cages will be stacked.

Thanks

[nordica]

Well, my personal opinion is that the easiest thing would be to mount a RHP on the ceiling. The UTHs are really only good unless stuck to the underside of glass, and CHEs get too hot on the surface, so you'd need to wall it off with that heavy duty wire caging (I *think* it's called "hardware cloth"). All three, however, are really gonna need a thermostat, or at the very least a rheostat, in order to be safe.

[the enigma]

The size heat panel I'd need would be $80 a pop...and to be honest..i am not willing to pay that. The cages will be for burms and retics...and a 4ft cage wont hold either for long. So the end big cage will all have heat panels. The rheostat was a good point...I had forgotten about them..

Whats A "CHE"?

[nordica]

Yeah, they're not cheap... perhaps just a safely caged-in CHE? (Oh, CHE = Ceramic Heat Emitter.)

[the enigma]

I like that idea!...I'd have to put some thought in it though...because I want the cages to be 1ft high...so the CHE would have to be inside (there will be no screen cage top) Maybe a low wattage one..years ago I saw just a socket and a cage with a CHE...do they still make these?

[nordica]

Well, I personally have never seen one that came already set-up. Any time that I've seen this particular heating method used, it was with a DIY enclosure. I'm really not sure that having the enclosure only one foot high would work though; between the socket, the CHE, and the "hardware cloth", you're looking at almost a foot in itself. I know that the RHPs are expensive, but can you justify the cost if you plan on taking them out of these intermediate enclosures and adding them to the adult enclosures when the time comes?

[the enigma]

yes...i suppose i could...but i think the size would be too different for me to do that...

Now heating cable? i have never used that, bad idea? or good?

[nordica]

Yeah, that's true; there'd be a size difference. Although, you could always get the lower-wattage ones now for the smaller enclosures, then when it comes time for the larger ones, just use them on the "cool" side, well depending on how low the wattage was, and have your higher-wattage ones on the "hot" side... and no, I've never used heat cables, or even heat tape.

[the enigma]

Yeah..that may be a good idea...

I am now trying to study up on the heat cable...

[laurarfl]

I have heat cable in my corn snake rack. It works, but that's all I can say about it. It seems that when you use heat cable, it needs some air space around it, but I could be wrong. My big snake cages have a track for heat cable and it is wide. There are two kinds, the skinny heat cable and the wider cable like the ones you buy at Home Depot. Wow, I'm so technical. I've read around on the kingsnake forums and google searches that the wide cable can void homewoners coverage in the event of a fire. That was a bit concerning for me, so I would look into that aspect and see if I'm off my rocker on that one.

My big snake cages are from Animal Plastics. They came with heat panels. The smaller boa cage is fine and needs a thermostat to keep it at a desired temp. The large cage only has one panel and I ended up turning off the thermostat to run it wide open. Even so, I wish it was hotter in there. I like the RHP, but I need two on the ceiling.

The bulb cage that I have is open on the bottom and wider on the sides than I would like. Do they have different ones?