# Heat cable



## coastal-shagg (Dec 16, 2013)

Morning all, quick question...

I'm building a bank of enclosures and have decided to use heat cable routed into a 1ftx1ft peice of melamine with a tile on top of that in each enclosure as the heat source. 

My question is how long should each heat cable be. the minimum i have seen is 3 metres for each cable. im thinking that ill have heaps of left over cable for each enclosure just hanging out the back being wasted.

what have you used in the past or do u have any ideas?

Thanks!


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## Umbral (Dec 16, 2013)

You can use one cable to do more than one enclosure. To work out the length I needed I measured our the spacing and drew lines where I was going to route, I then measured the line I had drawn by laying string over the line and measuring the string. Remember when buying heat cord that the whole cord doesn't heat. If it says 3m check that that means 3m of heating.


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## coastal-shagg (Dec 16, 2013)

Umbral said:


> You can use one cable to do more than one enclosure. To work out the length I needed I measured our the spacing and drew lines where I was going to route, I then measured the line I had drawn by laying string over the line and measuring the string. Remember when buying heat cord that the whole cord doesn't heat. If it says 3m check that that means 3m of heating.



ok great, so just run the heat cord from one enclosure to the next by running it down the back into the next one?
any idea of what kinda wattage would be appropriate?


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## Snowman (Dec 16, 2013)

You run out of cable quickly too. Say you do 3 runs per 1 foot x 1 foot panel. That's like 900mm or more. Add 500mm to get to the next level and your already at 1400mm. 

I use a separate cable for each level. I just leave the excess hanging out the back. Though I make heat panels so it's a bit different to what you are doing.


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## Porkbones (Dec 16, 2013)

Mate 3m sounds good.my local pet shop I have only seen the cord in 6m length.trying to find sumthing smaller


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## Umbral (Dec 16, 2013)

Wattage is determined buy the length of the cord, I just went out the back of one enclosure then into the next, working well thus far.


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## Umbral (Dec 16, 2013)

You could also do it Snowmans way but I haven't tried it so can't give advice on which way works better.


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## coastal-shagg (Dec 16, 2013)

Thanks everyone, ill most likely just measure the whole lot and go from one enclosure to the next but i like snowmans idea aswell. 

Snowman, is the way you have made it so you get heat radiating down and up so they can either be on the shelf or under it? any other reason you have done it this way? also what the material?


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## Snowman (Dec 16, 2013)

Umbral said:


> You could also do it Snowmans way but I haven't tried it so can't give advice on which way works better.



I'd only recommend the panels for larger pythons over 2m. Anything smaller a tile is fine and uses less watts per animal.


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## The_Geeza (Dec 16, 2013)

Porkbones said:


> Mate 3m sounds good.my local pet shop I have only seen the cord in 6m length.trying to find sumthing smaller


I will reply to other thread for u later but u can get URS in 4/4.3 and 6m


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## Porkbones (Dec 16, 2013)

MidsReps said:


> I will reply to other thread for u later but u can get URS in 4/4.3 and 6m



Yea I was positive they came in diff lengths but have only seen the 6mtr lengths in the local pet shop.


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## coastal-shagg (Dec 16, 2013)

MidsReps said:


> I will reply to other thread for u later but u can get URS in 4/4.3 and 6m




Thanks everyone!


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