How hot can heat cord get?

[Stopthatsnake]

How hot can heat cord get? Does anyone have any experience with temperature and wattage?

Considering setting one up in my new enclosure!

 

[Elapidae1]

Depends on how it's used, how many loops, how close the loops are is it under substrate, malamime, tiles, etc,etc. I have adult Woma's, Carpets and stimmies all set up with 15 watt heat cords. they are extremely versatile but require a little experimentation when you first begin using them.

 

[Stopthatsnake]

does it produce a decent amount of heat?

 

[Snowman]

I don't get much over 30 degrees with the way I run them in grooved wood. But I know Steve1 has recorded some potentially dangerous temperatures with heat cord before. I guess the general rule is, the more loops and closer the runs the higher the temps.

 

[Elapidae1]

yeah that's right Snowman. If I recall I got a home made heat panel to over 60 degrees. Im still using that panel and recording temps of 35 with a melamime enclosure over it. I recomend using a thermostat at least until you've had a chance to play around with the set up. Tat particular heat panel is an entire 15 watt cord between wood and a 300X100 ceramic tile.

 

[Stopthatsnake]

If I recall I got a home made heat panel to over 60 degrees.

Balls thats hot! Im going to be using it as an environmental heater on the side wall of the enclosure to radiate heat and warm the air as opposed to a surface... How do i measure the temp with this method? Place the probe in front of it?

 

[dickyknee]

I have recorded some temps around 60-65 degrees using cords in a heat panel set up .

 

[Elapidae1]

they are not really ideal for warming the air and even at the higher end of the temp range have little effect on ambient temps.
That being said if you still want to use them and there is any chance the animal will come into contact with it the temperature and thermostat need to be set to the surface temp not the air temp eg: thermo probe needs to be in direct contact with the heated surface.