Enclosure Heating. Panel Size & Heat Cord length (Large Vertical Enclosures)

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View attachment Enclosure.doc

Hoping this attachment works for everyone.

The question/s I need answered are about size and length (haha - please don't laugh for too long, it's a genuine question!)

The enclosure that Moose (My Jungle) will end up with for his forever display home (as he will be my only reptile he is being shouted to a nice display enclosure, he is currently in a 95cm long x 130cm High x 38cm Deep glass fronted enclosure and very very happy - super placid for a Jungle!!)

The new enclosure is going to be a solid walled (no ply) custom wardrobe that's 1M wide x 1.6 High x 60cm Deep (960 Litres) and I want to know how to most effectively heat it (please bear in mind it gets mighty cold here) it will have timber framed doors with glass inserts (visualise a fully enclosed wardrobe with the panels between the door frames replaced with glass)

• Top right there will be a high warm basking shelf with a hide (Shelf 1) about 30-35cm from the top of the enclosure

• Under that shelf also on the right I'm looking to mount a reptile panel style heater

• Shelf under that heat panel there will be a hot basking shelf (Shelf 2) where the thermo probe will sit on the shelf (have a daytime temp of 31 and an evening temp of 26 in the summer. there will be a gap of about 30-35cm between the panel and his basking shelf/thermo probe) Thermostat is a dimming thermostat with built in light timer and day/night settings for temp)

• Residual heat from the heat panel will warm the top shelf and warm hide (aiming for no thermostat probe if possible up here, just a thermometer, as the residual heat from the panel up through the timber (20mm timber) should be minimal - the residual heat through the top panel of my current set up is mid 20's) if it's too hot I can increase the thermal properties of the shelf and if it's not hot enough, reduce them.

• Further down on the display on the opposite side closer to the bottom (about 1/3 of the way up) there will be a warmish basking shelf with recessed heat cord in the shelf with a tile over the top (the tile won't be able to slide, just lift up, to avoid it falling from the shelf)

• All shelves will be supported and accented with natural branches (vertically and horizontally) and lots of fake plantings.

• Water Bowl and Cool hide will be on the ground.

My questions are:

• What size Heat Panel (in wattage) will/should be most suitable (Don't want to go too big if it's unnescessary and I definitely don't want to go too small and not reach desired temps. Cost of panel isn't a problem, even the 160w ones are very well prices from Herp Shop IMO

• What length heat cord should I use to create a low wamrth heated tile (tile will be 400x400 and the shelf a similar size) in order to eliminate the nead for a thermostat (lets face it, if it's too hot he won't use it, the enclosure is huge) and I do daily enclosure checks too.

Looking at doing something similar with larger proportions for a Bredli as well (Same Height and Depth, but 1.6 Metres Long) with larger shelves and less branches)