Heating a reptile room

[EamonA]

What is the best, safest and most efficient method to heat an insulated reptile room, as opposed to having heat lamps and heat pads etc?
A reverse cycle air-conditioner?

 

[nikole]

Im no expert. But in my walk in mertens enclosure ive used a couple of the 160 watts day light and nights. I was thinking like u too (heater) but after other peoples input, decided not too. In my case, it would dry out the air way too much. Also, the ambient temp is always warm, but slightly varies from winter to summer, creating a more natural feel so they might breed at some point.

 

[Jdsixtyone]

Reverse cycle split air con would be the go. Roughly you'll need 140 watts for every square meter of space. Always better to go bigger than you need. I'd use an inverter as they're a little more powerful and then just have it set to a timer or thermostat so it kicks in whenever it drops below your desired temperature. You'd be looking at around 2-2.5k supplied and installed. Also note you may need an electrician to hook the unit up from the switchboard to the isolator.

 

[junglepython2]

You are still likely to need some form of separate cage heating to provide a thermal gradient.

 

[MrVic]

Don't air conditioners tend to dry out the air?

Hydronic heating is a much more efficient way of heating up a room if that option is available to you.
Gas log fire is also a cheaper option to heat up a room.

You will need to create a "hot spot" and a "cold spot" for the animal to be able to self regulate. If you are reliant on heating up the entire room then you will not be able to provide a temperate gradient so the animal can't bask and then move to a cooler spot as the entire room is one temperature.

There is a post explaining how to build a basking area using a small heat mat inside a pvc pipe.

Also do a search for why reptiles need to self regulate their core temperatures. It will clear up a lot of reasons as to why you need to provide a temperature gradient.

 

[Jdsixtyone]

You'll be surprised to find that air cons these days are very cheap to run. The new inverters are actually cheaper than a gas or electric heater. The air is blown through the coil and as the air passed through it picks up the condensation. They also have a mode called dehumidification which will allow you to control the humidity levels. At the end of the day it's really up to what you want.

 

[wokka]

I used to use an oil-filled electric heater to heat my 12Ft by 12 ft baby room. It seemed reasonably efficient as it was only on about 25% of the time and at 1000 watts with inbuilt thermostat and timer, for $69 at bunnings. I think the insulation is the key. My room was in the center of the my insulated breeder rooms so any heat radiating from my baby room increased the ambient heat in my breeder rooms and so was reused.

 

[saximus]

I'm not entirely convinced that a gradient is an absolute necessity any more. If you look at the big American breeders like Brian Barczyk, they use room heating exclusively with everything. It is even so well controlled that they simply sit their egg containers on top of the racks to incubate them. It would be interesting to hear from any Aussies who have been successful using this sort of method. When you think about it, a thermo controlled 1000W room heater may be more efficient than 10-20 enclosures each with its own 100W heater.

The only down side I would see is that keeping them so constantly hot may put them into metabolic “overdrive” and may not be the best for longevity or long term health. Does anyone have firsthand experience doing it with babies as well as adults?

 

[notechistiger]

You would think that it couldn't be healthy long term, as you say. I wonder how many snakes they keep from hatching to death? It's also interesting to know if they give their adults a night time drop in temperature, which would be fine I think.

To the OP, is the need to insulate or heat your room itself purely for cost purposes? I've never insulating my reptile rooms but I do run numerous heat cords (a single heat cord running 2+ enclosures meant for me that it was outside the enclosure too). I found this increased the ambient and in the years that I heated everything this way, my adults didn't stop feeding through winter. I wouldn't have thought that slight increase was sufficient, but apparently it was. I run lights now purely for my benefit, I like looking in on them and I don't care about the cost.

 

[junglepython2]

I'm not entirely convinced that a gradient is an absolute necessity any more. If you look at the big American breeders like Brian Barczyk, they use room heating exclusively with everything. It is even so well controlled that they simply sit their egg containers on top of the racks to incubate them. It would be interesting to hear from any Aussies who have been successful using this sort of method. When you think about it, a thermo controlled 1000W room heater may be more efficient than 10-20 enclosures each with its own 100W heater.

The only down side I would see is that keeping them so constantly hot may put them into metabolic “overdrive” and may not be the best for longevity or long term health. Does anyone have firsthand experience doing it with babies as well as adults?

Very interesting point! Many of the bigger breeders overseas breeders don't offer gradients to their pythons though IMO it will lead to significantly shorter life spans. But it would be great to see some actual data.

I keep several pythons in cages with a divider with a definite hot end and cold end and it is surprising how much time the python spends on the cold side when given the choice.

 

[EamonA]

Currently, I am replacing heat lamps regularly and thermostats die. When this happens the lamp heats until it reaches dangerous temperatures. Naturally, it would be nice if a cheaper (and simpler) heating method could be used. However, it is also for the safety of the animals.

- - - Updated - - -

Reptiles at the Alice Springs Reptile Park are kept at a room temperature of 23-24 degrees with a LED light (or something similar) providing a hot spot.
Could I apply a similar method?

This will be a purpose built, insulated room.

 

[junglepython2]

Currently, I am replacing heat lamps regularly and thermostats die. When this happens the lamp heats until it reaches dangerous temperatures. Naturally, it would be nice if a cheaper (and simpler) heating method could be used. However, it is also for the safety of the animals.

Unrelated to your initial question, but your above problem can generally be avoided by reducing the wattage of your heat lamps to the minimum required to reach your basking temps. This way if they run full boar if your thermostat dies it won't overheat the cage. Obviously this is somewhat dependant on the size of the enclosure and its design.

I also find other heat sources such as heat cords are better at creating a good hot spot without greatly affecting the cool end of the cage when compared to heat lamps.

LED lights produce lots of light but next to no heat so generally useless for creating a hot spot.

Also what types of reptiles are you planning on keeping? If you are keeping varanids or dragons they will have completely different heating requirements compared to pythons.

 

[wokka]

If you can regulate your ambient temperature so it is consitent, then you shouldn,t need thermostats to regulate your hot spot. Once you work out the wattage required to achieve the desired hot spot, it will remain constant as long as the ambient temp remains constant. Put the whole lot on a timer and you should save a lot of thermostats.

 

[EamonA]

The only reptiles I currently keep indoors (and plan on moving to the new room) are pythons, pygos and tree skinks.