HEATING - Ceramics vs. Heat lights

[kiltonbeck]

cant you guys get hold of habistat reptile radiators over in ozz 75 watts work great with a pulse stat in my 3ft vivs cool end 26c warm end 30c hot spot 37c i keep royals and spotted pythons .

 

[coobs]

Ceramic or Light/Heat again...

Again, I pose the question (to the experts), ceramic or lights. I'm also in the process of having a very large tall double enclosure (7ft x 7ft x 2and a bit ft) built for my coastals. The last piece of advice I recieved from a reputable supplier was to avoid the ceramics because of the massive amounts of heat they put out (including into the surrounding cage). I have now been looking at probably two oz purple night light/heat globes and a UV setup for daytime. This enclosure is really going to be a show piece and I'm going all out on it. But what I want to do is go all out once, and once only. I don't want to have to change things around later.
In other words, I need to be spoon fed, help me out please experts...

 

[Chimera]

What is important if you're going to use a CHE is to ensure that you're wiring is correct and will account for a large amount of heat from the globe. There was a case on this site a short time ago where a short occurred in the light fitting, the conclusion from an electrician that inspected the fitting was that the CHE melted the insulation on the wires causing the short. Be extra careful with your wiring for any CHE over 100W as they will release a lot more heat up through the fitting then a standard red globe.

Secondly, you will need to take care to scope out your heating requirements correctly, CHEs go up to 250W and that much heat can get a 4' cage above a pythons critical thermal maximum in the case of a thermostat failure.

Thirdly, I have red globes that have been running for well over a year on a Microclimate dimming thermostat. These remove the transient effect induced by on/off thermostats that blow globes.

 

[acanthurus]

i use ceramic (black and white) heat emitters for my goannas but for snakes i would use a heat mat as the ceramic heaters do emitt a very "harsh" form of heat, not to mention the possibility of the snake getting through to the bulb (even when there is a cage around the bulb) like my neighbours just did resulting in a snakekebab,
cheers acanthurus.