Heating Enclosures???

[humba_jumba]

In peoples general opinion what is the best way to heat four foot melamine enclosures for darwin pythons and what is the best way to heat a four foot melamine bearded dragon enclosure??? Is it best to use heat cords or lighting??? Hope someone can advise me the best way to keep even heat consistantly... Thanks...

 

[Chris1]

for the beardies i have ceramic fittings, (plastic apparently melt, ive only noticed they get brittle and the clippy bits break off) with reflector globes from bunnings, 60W in summer, 100W in winter to achieve a basking area of 40-45C. Beardies also need a UVB light to enable them to use the calcium they injest, they need to get within 6-8 inches of it.

pythons in a 4 foot enclosure i would use heat panels, they area tad pricey tho, so you can make a heat panel out of heat cord, in my bigger enclosures i like to set heat panels up so they can use both sides of the panel (ie. mount it under a shelf) in my 4 footers tho i mount them on the ceiling and 1 snake gets heat from above, while the cage above has floor heating with a cave on top,....either for snakes, or geckos,...

 

[Bluetongue1]

humba_jumba,

I agree with Chris1 on the general principle of heat cord for the python and overhead heating + UV for the bearded. Just a couple of variations…

You should have branches in your python enclosure to allow it climb. If the enclosure is reasonably high, you may wish to add something like a 60W infra-red bulb, in a metal cage of course, at ceiling height above the hot end so that the branches receive adequate heat. Whether this needed or not is dependent on the height of the enclosure and the dynamics of it once it is fully set up. Secondly you may consider adding a light for daytime viewing. Either a small fluoro or an LED strip would be adequate and cheap to run.

Lizards require heat and UV in the same place at the same time. For UVB to be efficient in helping to produce Vitamin D3, the lizard needs to be at or near their preferred body temperature. The UVB light should shine over virtually all of the lizard’s body and not just one part of it. Lizards also expect to get light and heat at the same time. So if the enclosure is sufficiently well vented you maybe able to use a 100W mercury vapour lamp, which provides heat, light and UV, but do put out a lot of heat. Alternatively, a bright UV fluoro can be combined with a ceramic heat lamp. Or, a not so bright UV fluoro (such as NEC T10) used together with a basking lamp (light and heat).


Chris 1,

A sparky mate explained about the light fitting not long ago. You can use up to a 100 W normal (incandescent) light bulb in a house. It is assumed it will get plenty of air flow around it. Above 100 W there is a danger of the plastic melting and you are supposed to use ceramic fittings. Given that they always build in a safety buffer, you could possibly run 150 W without the plastic melting – but I am only guessing there. What does happen, however, is the continuous high heat of a 100 W bulb on the plastic causes it to go brittle after a couple of years. Lower wattages can have a similar effect but take correspondingly longer.

 

[Chris1]

humba_jumba,


Chris 1,

A sparky mate explained about the light fitting not long ago. You can use up to a 100 W normal (incandescent) light bulb in a house. It is assumed it will get plenty of air flow around it. Above 100 W there is a danger of the plastic melting and you are supposed to use ceramic fittings. Given that they always build in a safety buffer, you could possibly run 150 W without the plastic melting – but I am only guessing there. What does happen, however, is the continuous high heat of a 100 W bulb on the plastic causes it to go brittle after a couple of years. Lower wattages can have a similar effect but take correspondingly longer.

thanks Blue, my first big cage came with plastic fittings, and i was horrified cos if everythign i'd read,..

i didnt leave the house for 48 hours while i ran tehm continuously with 10oW globes and waited for them to melt, electrocute my lizards and burn the flat down, lol,...

i replaced tehm years later when the clippy bits broke (an annoying enough experince in itself, i have a cupboard full of globes, but dying fittings really screwed me), but never used anything over 100W, hence them not melting,...would defintalely always use ceramics when given a choice, but not all ready made cages might come with cermaics,... ;P

 

[feathergrass]

I have a 4ft tank for my dragons with a 3ft uvb 10.0 tube in with reflector and 2 50w fan heat lights in mine with the tube going along then a fan heat light next to tube and the other fanheatlight infront of the fikrst fan heat light seems so far ( as i am running it to make sure temps are fine ( thermostat hasnt arrived yet) thankfully no dragons in there yet so if i have probs nothing will get hurt that i would worry about

thanks for the info on sankes heating ( thats a future goal to get a snake)

 

[Bluetongue1]

Hi Chris,

You can buy ceramic fittings that are identical to the plastic fitting that take an old style bayonet (incandescent) globe. They are relatively cheap and easy to change over if you are half-ways handy with screw driver. Just make sure that all power to the light is unplugged, with no chance of it being plugged back while you are working on it. (Forgive me stating the obvious). If you are not confident about doing it, get someone with handyman experience who has done it before. One or two enclosure with that will eventually use up your old light bulbs.

Cheers,
Blue