Heating Mats

[as.olivia]

I’ve got a 3 tier melamine enclosure that I’m setting up right now, and I’m looking to transition to heat mats. I’ve used heat cord in the past but lately I’ve only been using CHF bulbs which work well but consume a lot more energy, but I’ve been given 3 heat mats so I thought I’d give it a go. I’ve got thermostats to attach and each of my tanks has a wifi hygrometer that has phone alerts and eventually an emergency shut off if the tank gets too warm, so I’m not worried about ambient temp, but I am worried about burning. Everything I’ve read about heat mats says to make a heat tile - the heat mats I have are full units, they’re not the laminated plastic kind, they’re coated in rubber and waterproof. Would I be best attaching them to the underside of the melamine (about 18mm thick), or on the floor of the enclosure? The surface of the mat supposedly is incapable of exceeding 40 degrees (I will be testing temps before I put anything in the enclosure). I use turf as substrate, can I just put the turf on top? Or should I still use a tile? And should I put a tile on the melamine before putting the mat down or can it just go straight on?

Thanks!

 

[snakesandmirrors]

turf could work fine as substrate

 

[dragonlover1]

mats are generally used under glass enclosures using them in melamine is unusual. First up do not put it under the melamine as it won't do anything.
I'd suggest putting it on the floor without a tile underneath but with 1 on top because the rubber might melt into the plastic backing of the astro turf

 

[Sdaji]

mats are generally used under glass enclosures using them in melamine is unusual. First up do not put it under the melamine as it won't do anything.
I'd suggest putting it on the floor without a tile underneath but with 1 on top because the rubber might melt into the plastic backing of the astro turf

I don't really want to get into specifics because it's easy to get wrong and difficult to exactly describe what to do while taking everything in consideration (depends on the wattage per area of the heat mat, what the melamine is on top of, what substrate is being used and the substrate depth, etc etc etc), so I don't want to be the cause of someone else having problems, but you absolutely can put a heat mat under a melamine enclosure and it can be perfectly effective. I haven't used melamine enclosures for over 10 years now, but I used to use them with heat mats, and if I was going to use melamine again I'd probably use underfloor heating for the enclosures in a similar way to my old setups.