Heating??

[Tempest404]

this thread could be in the wrong place... but i wasn't too sure about it being in DIY or not.

Just got my hands on head cord and some heat mats, i was just curious on how to set these up properly so A/ stuff doesn't catch fire and B/ more importantly no one gets burnt. being second hand they didn't come with instructions, and i wasn't home at the time to ask

 

[Tempest404]

now that its starting to cool down keeping the enclosure temps up is getting difficult hence the purchases, especially for winter

 

[ronhalling]

As long as you purchase a couple of thermostats and probe thermometers and run the setups for a few days without any animals in residence to make sure everything works ok you should be right, then think about putting them into/under enclosures, once you have ascertained all is well then would be a good time to ask the good people here about how best to use them...............................Ron

 

[Skitzmixer]

Theres a few good threads on here about making your own heat matts with heat cord. Personally, the best one i found was get a slate tile from bunnings in the gardening section and you'll find on the bottom of the tile is a plastic grill used to interlock other tiles, its perfect for winding around a 2m heat cord.. Think the tile was only a few dollars from memory as well.

Good luck

 

[bigjoediver]

A lot depends on what type of enclosure you are using, and what type of animal is going in them. Most people use heat cord to make a heat tile but it also can be used to make a panel type radiator using 10mm core flute. There are threads here on making both. Heat mats are generally used with glass enclosures They should only cover a max of one third of the floor area and are placed under the enclosure. Some brands say to place a thin piece of foam under your enclosure and the mat between them and the thermostat probe in contact with the heat mat. These are only general instruction and every ones set ups are a little different. But I use a thermostat on my heat sources and definitely wouldn't use a heat mat with out one. The good thing is unlike globes you can get away with a cheap on/off thermostat. Hope this helps, if you provide a little more info on your enclosures and species you might get some more detailed info.

 

[Tempest404]

That's the enclosure, and he's a Stimson Python. Do bulbs produce more ambient heat than ceramics?

 

[bigjoediver]

Nice enclosure, FYI ceramics produce more heat per watt than a conventional globe which is why you need to use fitting designed for them. If you put one in a fitting designed for say a 100w max globe, a 100w CHE will melt it. I have a stimmie and heat her enclosure using a 25w heat cord on a thermostat and have a 25w halogen lamp as a basking light on a timer. This provides plenty of heat and in summer I don't even bother with the halogen. I used LED strip lighting for her photo period.