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lengthy reply...

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Posted by: chris_harper2 at Tue Mar 29 09:22:22 2005   [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by chris_harper2 ]  
   

First, I'm not sure if I can provide an valuable input on the humidity issues given my minimal experience with the species you keep. I've kept them but it was in a fairly humid building so I did not have to worry about such things.



The oil-filled, radiator-style space heater should have no trouble heating that space.



Until recently my snake room was in an unheated, uninsulated garage. The ceiling did have a small amount of blown in cellulose, but that's it.



The room was 7'x7'x8' and had two exterior walls and two walls that were interior to the rest of the garage. The door was a typical hollow-core door.



Since it was only temporary I could not go all out on insulation. What I did was discover an insulation material called Reflectix which looks like bubble-wrap covered with aluminum foil. It has a minimal R value but is able to block 97% of radiant heat - the type of heat produced by your space heater.



I loosely stapled reflectix to the ceiling, walls, and the hollow door. I did not do anything to the bare concrete floor. The room ended up looking like this:







This picture was taken before covering the door and ceiling, but you get the point.



With this setup and a small ceiling fan I was able to heat that room to 85* with my space heater set to only 600 watts. The temperature of the lower boxes was just a few degrees cooler than the boxes set on top of the rack. That was a height difference of over 5'.



When the temperatures dropped to 20* below zero the space heater still did it's job and still at 600 watts. Due to amperage concerns in the rest of the garage I had to shut the ceiling fan off and only during the coldest periods did I have to stop keeping snakes on the bottom most level of my rack.



So my point of this lengthy reply is to preach the issues of insulation with a reflective component.



The outside walls are insulated...



You mean exterior walls, correct? Do you know what type of insulation was used?



Are the walls interior to the rest of the basement uninsulated?



... but the floor is still concrete and is really cold.



Do you have the money, time, and interest in finishing the floor?



The ceiling is not finished.



This will make a huge difference, especially if you can add a reflective insulation on your ceiling where it's most important. DO NOT just go out and buy regular insulation. Radiant heat is very good at passing through normal means of insulation.



If I were you I'd start with finishing the ceiling. I have several ideas on how to do this but pictures will help. I'd also add a small ceiling fan.



Insulating the floor would be great but let's start with the ceiling. And if those interior walls are not insulated you should do them as well.



I don't recommend stapeling Reflectix to the walls, but you may have to do so to the already-insulated and finished exterior walls.



BTW, my new snake room is 9'x17' and is in the back of my third garage stall. It is mostly below grade as our house is built into a steep hill. I framed the room out with 2x4's and for insulation just used the 1.5" foil-covered poly-iso insulation board. I shoved it into the stud bays so that there would be an air space inbetween the drywall and the insulation. This air space is very important. I also have a slight air space behind the insulation. This is also important, albeit not as important as the air space in front.



The ceiling just has normal attic batting. I need to add Reflectix before next winter.



For the floor I just laid treated 2x4's on their side and shot them into the concrete. I then shoved 3/4" foil-covered poly-iso all the way to the concrete, therby leaving a 3/4" air space between my subfloor and the insulation face. Then 3/4" plywood subfloor and linoluem.



Even on our coldest days here in South Dakota my vertical temperature gradient has been no more than 2*. And that's measured over the entire 8'2" of the height of the room.



The vertical temperature gradiant of the space actually occuped by cages in only 1*. That's about 6' so still pretty impressive.
-----
Current snakes:



0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)



3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)



2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)



3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)


   

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