Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was thinking of replacing some heat lamps with ceramic heaters. How are these used? Do they need to be suspended, with a clamp, or on a light stand?
Or can they be placed atop a screen cage cover?
I just moved my herps into a a new house, where my basement temps are lower than my old herp room, and I need to get the cage temps up about 10 degrees from where they are now.
Any suggestions?? Any help with my questions on ceramic heaters?
Thanks in advance.

Bob

Ceramic Heat Emitters or CHE's will burn through standard screen and will heat up aluminum screen to the danger point of touching. CHE's work best when mounted to the ceiling of the cage using a porcelin socket or a traditional utility light with shroud. I perfer the porcelin socket as it is designed for the wattage and can withstand the heat. It is hard to find utility lights that can do the same.

Another thing is the CHE's get extremely hot surfacce temps making it dangerous to the inhabitents. So you should either make them high enough or surround them with some hardware cloth. Or a combination of the two wil work, the hardware cloth will et hot but not as hot as the CHE itself.

If you are using a dedicated herp room you can always get a radient floor heater. I myself use 2 1500w floor heaters to maintain room temps, obviously winter is more difficult than summer. I got them at Menards for $40 a piece.

A more permament solution would be to insulate the new room and install electric cove radient heaters. However a lot of that is based on general location. I am in North Dakota and see temps far different than those in the lower states.

Good Luck
-----
Jeremy

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" July 16, 1945 Robert Oppenheimer

1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow RTB's
1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's
2.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's
0.1 Suriname RTB
0.1 Anerthrystic RTB
0.0.11 Red Bearded Dragons
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.2 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
0.0.1 Youth -coming soon-

for me, winter is actually easier because I have a register coming into the basement for heat. If I enclose a herp room, I will probably add another vent. It's summer when the heat is off that is the problem. Before I moved, ambient temps were in the low 80's. Now I'm in the high 60's low 70's.
If I run another 1500watt heater, my wife will shoot me for sure!
Thanks for the comeback!

I myself never turn the heat off, down but not off. Basements have a tendency to stay relativly the same temp up here. Weather its -30 outside or a 115 the basements tend to stay in the 60' range. A lot of it is do to the geo-thermal properties of the soil composition and that the concrete is in said soil, acts like a big heat sink.

All my cages run suppelmental heat and I just heat the room to 80', I have 2 rooms thats why I have two heaters.

My wife doesn't like the electric bill either but its something she deals with. I don't like the girly stuff in the bathroom but I deal with it, comprimise.

Take her to dinner and dancing, romance her all night than show her the bill. I think it will be fine, it is for the life of your herps and all.

Good Luck
-----
Jeremy

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" July 16, 1945 Robert Oppenheimer

1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow RTB's
1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's
2.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's
0.1 Suriname RTB
0.1 Anerthrystic RTB
0.0.11 Red Bearded Dragons
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.2 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
0.0.1 Youth -coming soon-

All of the above about ceramic heaters are true - they will burn skin if touched and need to be screened off with hardware cloth, not nylon screen. But, the type of heat (wavelength) CHEs put out is fantastic for snakes.

I've had great results using ceramics. Results being healthy animals. In one experiment I put a few rosyboas is a cage with a CHE overhead, while I kept siblings in standard shoebox/flexwatt setups. Rosies are known for being belly-heat snakes as opposed to overhead heat snakes, and you will find that said in any caresheet you care to read on rosies. (Caresheets are not gospel, and in many cases are probably wrong on numerous levels, but do give guidelines.)

In any case, the CHE snakes did wonderfully. They had fantastic appetites and were able to maintain desired temps easily. And it seemed to me that their color was more striking, but there is no way for me to measure that. The shoebox snakes did great too, but the CHE snakes grew faster because they were willing to eat more often. Not a bad testimony for CHEs, even if they do have surface temps exceeding 200 deg F.

Posted by: Burmaboy at Sun Sep 3 22:22:38 2006 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

I was thinking of replacing some heat lamps with ceramic heaters. How are these used? Do they need to be suspended, with a clamp, or on a light stand?
Or can they be placed atop a screen cage cover?
I just moved my herps into a a new house, where my basement temps are lower than my old herp room, and I need to get the cage temps up about 10 degrees from where they are now.
Any suggestions?? Any help with my questions on ceramic heaters?
Thanks in advance.

Bob

I agree with MarkG I find them great. They give off a lot of heat so you dont need to run a high watt to get temp up 10 degrees .
I use them on screen tank covers for low tanks like 40 or 30 gallon long . I use 60 watt types with only half the power . They are great if placed on one side for temp gradient.

I have never had to hang them off the screen but than again I dont go high with them as no need to .

I use cement hide caves and they truly absorb the heat thus not much is needed . Not all brands are SAFE or will last . I myself am very happy with ESU and Pearlco . Pearlco last bit longer but both great .

It is a drying heat but humidity easy to maintan with damp hide area,etc .