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24-Jan-08, 10:11 PM
| | | Ceramic heat emitter question
Hey folks,
The project to spruce up my bluey's old melamine cage for my stimson's python has just become a project to build a new cage for my stimson's python. 
The cage length will be 115cm, and I'd like to switch over to a ceramic heat emitter. My question is, what wattage will I want in order to create a temp gradient of around 32-24 degrees? |
24-Jan-08, 10:15 PM
|  | Has Happy Herps.... Sponsor | Join Date: Aug-03 Location: SYDNEY | | | | What is your cage made out of and what are the full dimensions of it?
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24-Jan-08, 10:19 PM
| | | | It will be out of melamine-covered MDF and the full dimensions will be 115cm long, 40cm deep and 50cm high. |
24-Jan-08, 10:30 PM
|  | Roadkill Subscriber | Join Date: Aug-05 Location: Western Sydney Age/Gender: 25  | | | | 60W should do the trick. Make sure you monitor the temps over the first few days/weeks to ensure you get it right though.
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24-Jan-08, 11:04 PM
|  | Subscriber | Join Date: May-05 Location: Brisbane Gender: | | | | You will need to use a pulse proportional thermostat with a ceramic heat emitter. |
24-Jan-08, 11:08 PM
|  | Herpawhat? Subscriber | Join Date: Dec-07 Location: sydney, in Da Ghetto Age/Gender: 26 | | | | wouldn't a dimmer be better
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24-Jan-08, 11:27 PM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: May-05 Location: Brisbane Gender: | | | | I have been told that a Dimmer will work, but the Pulse Proportional is better. |
24-Jan-08, 11:37 PM
| | Herpawhat? Subscriber | Join Date: Dec-07 Location: sydney, in Da Ghetto Age/Gender: 26 | | | | being a sparky i would say that a lower voltage supplied by a dimming thermostat would be much better for the life of the heater coil than the max on / max off square wave style produced by the pulse proportional type,
but having no experience with them i can only give my profesional opinion..
same goes for everything except flouro tubes and compact flouro's
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24-Jan-08, 11:55 PM
| | | | Mangles and TWENTY B, I'm afraid I don't understand. I don't have much knowledge of electronics.
What's a pulse proportional thermostat? The Herpshop site says that their basic wall thermostats are suitable to use with ceramic heat emitters? |
25-Jan-08, 07:56 AM
| | Regular Member | Join Date: Nov-05 Location: melbourne | | | | We have ours on a basic thermostats, over three years and the ceramic is still going |
25-Jan-08, 08:01 AM
|  | Regular Member | Join Date: Oct-06 Location: Sydney West | | | | pulse means it is either on or off, dimming means it lowers the wattage rather than completely turning it off...
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25-Jan-08, 08:11 AM
|  | Regular Member | Join Date: Jul-07 Location: Cambewarra Age/Gender: 48 | | | | These are good questions and am also very interested, My question then is if I used a dimmer and established a good temperature on a given day then what happens if it is a very hot day and the ambient temp of the room goes up.... then the heater will still be on and it could be possible to overheat (does that make snese?) I would have thought a thermostat would be safer?
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25-Jan-08, 08:38 AM
|  | Sponsor | | | | | they are talking about dimming and pulse proportional thermostats not just a dimmer
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25-Jan-08, 08:43 AM
|  | Subscriber | Join Date: Oct-06 Location: Adelaide, SA (North East) Age/Gender: 56 | | | | I'm with TWENTY B, certainly a dimming thermostat like the Microclimate B1 and others.
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25-Jan-08, 09:10 AM
|  | Necker Cube Subscriber | Join Date: Feb-07 Location: NSW | | | Quote:
Originally Posted by TWENTY B  being a sparky i would say that a lower voltage supplied by a dimming thermostat would be much better for the life of the heater coil than the max on / max off square wave style produced by the pulse proportional type,
but having no experience with them i can only give my profesional opinion..
same goes for everything except flouro tubes and compact flouro's | I can see where you coming from twentyb but I'm pretty sure the pulse proportional clips the waveform which should avoid transients even when applied to a heating coil.
There would certainly be no issue in using a dinning thermostat with a ceramic, in fact I would recommend this over a pulse proportional because of the greater versatility offered (i.e. down the track you can change to red spot globes). | | |
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