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I need advise on heating my cages. I have two boaphiles stacked on a plastic table in the bedroom closet. (no doors on the closet) I have the thermostat set to 99 degrees but the hot side of the cage is only getting to 78 and the cool side is 67. I can't figure out why this is not working out. In the boaphiles I have the 1.5 heat option. Are the boaphiles not very good at getting and keeping good heat temps? Should I try wood or other plastic cages instead? or maybe a space heater in the room?

Do you have a fan on in the room dissipating the heat from the closet? What is the ambient temp. since your cold side is 67? How are you measuring temps? Where is the placement of your probe?

Under Cage Heat X 1.5: This is workable for those with a single 421D cage if the room it is kept in is at least 72 degrees during the day and 68 at night. This size also works well for people with 422D cages stacked as they gain heat and benefit from each other.

I think your room temp is throwing you off somehow but on getting up to 78? something don't sound right. I use 1.5 heat and I heat mine up to 85 problem even with the room at 68. Have you tried plugging your flexwatt into the wall for a little while just to see if you can raise it above 78 but by all means it needs to be controlled but then you know it is your thermostat.

Hope it helps
Bob

one of the cages is a 421D and the other is a 421T. I have the 421D on top of the 421T. I have a two probe thermometer from big apple herp in each cage monitoring my temps, the readouts on both are pretty consistent. The ambient temp in the room is about 68 degrees throughout the day and night. There is a fan in the room, but it is never on and the window is never open. The cool side of the cage is about a foot away from the window and outside wall. I know this is not recommended, but unfortunately these cages cannot go anywhere else in the house. I have tried to cover that side of the cages to minimize any draft to might be coming in and also put an extra curtain on the window itself. I will try and plug the flexwatt into the wall directly to see if I can bump up the heat that way. Other than that, I'm not sure what else I can do.

I am running each cage with a separate thermostat. each probe is taped to the inside bottom of the cage over the heat tape.

Go pick up some reflectix (or similar bubble wrap style insulation) then apply it to the back and the side near the window, should help a little atleast with holding its heat.
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Randall L Turner Jr.
Boas make the world go round.

Your space is too cold and or your cages are too close to a really cool place. Your window and the exterior wall it is mounted in are the trouble. The Flexwatt we use is a low wattage Flexwatt that is perfect for tweaking your temps by 10-20 degrees if your room temperature and set up are at reasonable room temperatures. In the winter time with different airflows, which can be very tricky to determine or impossible to identify, there are lots of things you can do to help boost your temps. We list those on the web site. The cages hold heat very well as well as humidity but the room temp or more specifically, the position exactly where your cages are must be at least 70 degrees. Anything lower than that will require more heating in the form of a radiant heat panel or additional heaters mounted to the outside of the cage.

The biggest thing that is difficult to visualize and describe is negative airflow issues. When it is warm outside, your exterior walls are warm too. The temperature difference between the inside and outside is minimal so the airflow indoors is minimal. Now, let it get cold outside and your exterior walls become drafty. That is even if your rooms are completely tight without any exterior air coming into your place, the cooler exterior walls have the air in the room drafting downward to the floor. The warmer air in the room rises and boom. You have currents and drafts moving everywhere in your room have is greatest effect nearest the outside walls and especially windows. Cooler air slips downward from the walls and window areas to the floor. This is something that can't easily be measured or seen.

Insulation will help you a bit but I do think you will still need more heaters on the outside of your current cages to push you up where you need to be. That is assuming you can't just move the cages to a place where they are not near that window or bring in a space heater to help keep your temperatures at a more reasonable level in the room. Call me any time during the day at the phone number listed on the site and I can help walk you through this. I don't know if I can post that number here so I won't but I know you know where to find my number.
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I know the window is my biggest challenge right now. The only other place I can move them is the other spare bedroom.....which is currently being used to house three ferrets and I don't think my boas would appreciate that smell. I did buy a space heater and I'm going to play with that for a few hours tonight after work and see if I can't get things right.

excellant advise. well done.
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Plastic over your windows. Space heaters are very expensive to run so youll add another $25 or so monthly on your electric bill. I used to have heated rooms and you can go to the store and buy insulation kits for your window. They dont cost alot and its basically a piece of plastic and some accessories. They work great though at keeping your window from blowing cold air around the cracks. At the least that will alo let you run your heater at a lower level saving you $ You might also want to throw a blanket over the top of the cages as well. Just a couple of thoughts.

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