Heating Help

[Sabrina]

Hi everyone

Just trying to get a little bit of advice, as we are absolutely stumped. We have for the lasr 3 years been using a 150w ceramic heat lamp, in the set up picture with absolutely no issues. However over the last week we have been having issues with the heat in his basking spot. We have tried problem solving but to no avail:
1. Replace the lamp, we have tried an nighttime 150w globe, 150w ceramic and 250w ceramic.
2. Tried a new thermostat, that a petstore kindly loaned us, however that did not solve the problem, and we find if we put the temp probe in our hand it heats up and the thermostat is kicking in and out, plus we have placed another thermometer next to it and getting similar readings
3. Changed out the lamp fitting, for a few one.

Despite all of this the lamp is struggling to heat to 28° and keeps dropping to and hovering around 25°, sometime going lower, and then it takes hours to heat back up.

If anyone has any advice it would be gladly appreciated, as we are at our wits end trying to fix this.

I am trying to post some pics, but for some reason my silly tablet wont reaize them. I will attempt to post soon

Cheers Sabrina

 

[pinefamily]

Two more things to try before I'm stumped. Borrow an infra-red temp gun to test the temps accurately (if you don't already have one), and if that doesn't resolve it, run an extension cord to another power point.

One more question: where are you in Oz? I know you say you've had this setup for 3 years with no issue, but this winter has been particularly severe. Perhaps try a PAR38 globe; if that doesn't get your temp up on the basking spot, nothing will.

 

[Chris1]

Is that a massive vent behind the heat source? If it is try covering it with cardboard till after winter,.....

 

[pythoninfinite]

Looks like imbricata to me - are you in WA? Two of your biggest problems are that vertical cages are very hard to heat effectively in cold weather, and the perforated metal vent is WAY too large, letting all the heat out by both convection (holes) and conduction (through the metal). Try covering a full 90% of the vent with cardboard (taped to the OUTSIDE, and with the actual vent area at the bottom i.e. try and trap the heat in the upper part of the enclosure) and see how you go holding the heat in. You seem to be using very high wattage heating appliances to keep this enclosure warm. You don't need anything like the size of the ventilation the enclosure has to ensure good health of your animal, and you might save some money on energy costs. A 25W heat cord sandwiched between tiles, and thermostat controlled at around 30C, will be more effective and far cheaper to run.

Ha Chris beat me to it !

Jamie

 

[Sabrina]

Hi Guys thanks for the advice, as mentioned we are in WA, it has been cold today and yesterday, but the rest of the week hasnt been too bad. We will try moving the power to another point first just to eliminate that, then covering the vent. I did read that in another post, but thought it was ok given this is a new issue. In summer we really need the large vent as it gets too hot.

Hopefully once the vent is covered we can prehaps switch to a lower wattage.

 

[pythoninfinite]

I'm sure that covering the vent will make the biggest difference, so I would do that before anything else. The warmed air will going straight out of the enclosure through all those holes and metal sheeting.

Jamie

 

[Sabrina]

thanks Jamie, we partially covered the vent this morning, and will hunt around for some more cardboard tonight to cover the rest, just leaving a small bit at the bottom. Now that we are thinking about it, we should have placed the vent in the bottom half of the enclosure, not the top. We originally had a much smaller vent, but that was getting too hot in summer

 

[pinefamily]

It is curious it has only been this year you've had problems, but it has been a particularly cold one this year.

 

[Pauls_Pythons]

Have you moved the enclosure into a different room/spot recently?
If its on an outside wall it will influence the temp.

 

[pythoninfinite]

thanks Jamie, we partially covered the vent this morning, and will hunt around for some more cardboard tonight to cover the rest, just leaving a small bit at the bottom. Now that we are thinking about it, we should have placed the vent in the bottom half of the enclosure, not the top. We originally had a much smaller vent, but that was getting too hot in summer

If it was getting too hot in summer, (as a West Australian I know how hot the summers can be) the enclosure is either in a bad spot for heat (sun through window or against a hot exterior wall), or your thermostat wasn't working properly in conjunction with the huge wattage you are running to heat the enclosure. If you still need to run high wattage heating through the winter, you must definitely greatly reduce the power of your heating devices in the warmer months to the minimum required to maintain a temp of around 32C. High wattage heaters in summer will cook your animal in the event of a thermostat failure (and they do fail...).

It is always best (for your animals, and your pocket) to use heating devices that are the minimum required to get to optimum temperature (around 32-33C) year round, and if it struggles to do this on a few cold days in winter, that's no problem. You definitely don't need to use devices that have a huge reserve capacity "just in case" - high inescapable heat for a couple of hours will kill a snake or cause permanent neurological damage, whereas being a bit too cool for a few days at a time will cause no harm at all as long as you don't disturb the animal if it's inactive.

Most of these bigger Morelias will come out and bask in winter sunshine, even on very cold but sunny winter days, then they retreat and curl up tightly to conserve that energy for as long as possible. During extended cool periods without sun, they just remain inactive in their hiding spots until the opportunity to come out and bask presents itself again, which is why it is unwise to handle them when they are not at "operating" temperature. They have a built-in ability to cope with the variations that the weather presents them with, but by far the biggest immediate threat to their health can be overheating. This is probably unlikely in the tall enclosure that houses your python, since the heating device is at the top, but you should be able to reduce the wattage of the devices you are using and still get satisfactory heating.

Jamie

 

[Sabrina]

Thanks for all the advice.
We managed to suss it out, our thermostat was failing, it was saying it was on but not turning on every time, and the one we tested ended up being faulty too, as we went back and brought it and it was not actually turning the lamp on properly. The petshop must have had a bad batch of thermostats, as even the replacement was faulty, so 3 thermostats later he is happy and warm.
In summer we will definitely be looking at lowering the wattage of the lamp to save energy and as a precaution in the event of a failure.
Cheers from me and Felix (the python)