# heat cord - interesting fact & query



## mikey_mike (Apr 28, 2016)

Turns out you can't chop the plug off urs heat cord and rewire it.
Who knew?
My appreciation of RCDs continues to grow.

On another note - the URS instructions suggest that each loop of heat cord needs to be 2.5cm away from each other. I'm keen to try 1cm for what I have in mind - I'm certain that loops of heat cord will never touch. Comments? other than "always follow the manufacturers guidelines" Ta.


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## Planky (Apr 29, 2016)

I Didn't think you could chop n fit plugs to reptile heat cords, the cord mentioned in the other thread is concrete slab heating cord, I assume it would be manufactured different to what we use, I run the cords 3cm apart. 1cm apart seems excessive,


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## mikey_mike (Apr 29, 2016)

makes sense. Thanks


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## ShaunMorelia (Apr 29, 2016)

By cutting the heat cord, you'll be cutting the heating element.
There are safety reasons why heat cord is manufactured with a cool section at the plug end.

1cm is pretty tight, I've always stuck to 2-3cm tops. any closer seems to be using the cord inefficiently.
At 1cm I'd be wary of any possible kinks in the heating element resulting in a malfunction.


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## Ghillies (May 22, 2016)

Anyone know the actual heated length of the URS cords?

my guess would be as below base on limited time playing with them.

4m/15w - 1.5m
4.3/25w - 2.5m
6/50w - 5m
9/80w - 8m
12/100w - 10m

do many use the ones that offer say 4.5m heated + 1.5 heated?

also if anyone is interested a 4.3/25w spaced 70mm over a 350x350 tile area produced 35c at 27c ambient temp after running for 7hrs with no thermostat. This was just taped to the bottom with aluminium tape and out in the open.

i imagine if placed in routed grooves it would get a little warmer as less heat would escape out the sides.

Also even though melamine is a good insulator I've managed 45c by laying 16mm melamine on cords roughly but far from accurately spaced 30mm. Temps around the cord (underneath) were ~55c

would like to see how much heat and spacing it would take to heat through a routed piece of melamine and if it can be done safely.

would make for a very clean looking enclosure floor and I think a few people on the Pilbara forum do this. Also seems the heat cord tile option is popular for all their species of Python....


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## Pauls_Pythons (May 22, 2016)

Hey Mikey. Unless you are a registered sparky it's actually against the law to do anything like that.
If it faults & burns the house down insurance could be void!


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## ronhalling (May 24, 2016)

mikey_mike said:


> Turns out you can't chop the plug off urs heat cord and rewire it.
> Who knew?
> My appreciation of RCDs continues to grow.
> 
> On another note - the URS instructions suggest that each loop of heat cord needs to be 2.5cm away from each other. I'm keen to try 1cm for what I have in mind - I'm certain that loops of heat cord will never touch. Comments? other than "always follow the manufacturers guidelines" Ta.



The reason they suggest 2.5 cms between loops is that when you try and compress the coils down further than that you put too much pressure on the insulation on the outside of loops and on the wires on the inside of the loop, with frequent heating and cooling of the heat cord it becomes damaged too quickly. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) -ronhalling


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