Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Greetings;

I am in the process of converting a 12x24 unattached garage room for our animals and would appreciate some ideas.

The room adjoins to 12x12 rooms where the majority of the critters are now. These rooms are fairly well insulated but the adjoining garage area is not. I will have to install a ceiling and one wall (where the old garage door was) and insulate above the ceiling where it is currently open to the metal roof.

We have been heating the small rooms with oil filled heaters but I don't think that this will make the nut for the larger one. Does anyone out there have suggestions for how to heat this larger area? Hopefully, in a manner which will be more or less reasonable to both install and operate. The eventual plan is for one small room to be a cooling room, one a rodent utility room and the large room to be the general area.

The only solid idea I have so far is that I want to install a ventless propane radiant heater for emergencies (we have been known to lose power for extended times)

We are in Kentucky so we need heat more than air. I will probably install a small window unit A/C at some point but the heat is the bigger worry. The common thing here seems to be radiant baseboard heaters but judging on the ones in our house they are NOT cheap to run.

Anyways, anyone with heating/AC experience your input is welcome!

Thanks
Peter
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Peter and Sara
Beouf River Reptiles

The only solid idea I have so far is that I want to install a ventless propane radiant heater for emergencies (we have been known to lose power for extended times)

I would carry this concern into the main heater as well. I was recently reading an article in the real estate section of my local paper. A reader had written in to ask about options for heating an addition to their home.

One of the answers was a propane heater that generated and stored electric power. The building professional writing the response made it seem like it was a common thing for small addtions.

I went with electric overhead radiant heat in my garage-snake-room-conversion. I like it for many reasons, mostly for how cheap it is to operate in my area and because I have a very minimal floor to ceiling temperature differential.

What I don't like is how the 220V line voltage thermostats switch to a 55* setting whenever there is even the shortest of power outages.

However, with a bit more research I'm certain I would have used a gas powered heater of some sort that would operate in case of a power outage. My job frequently takes me away for three or four days at a time and one occasion I did come home to a 55* snake room. I already have a gas powered heater in another part of the garage so it only would have entailed running additional gas line.

And now that we are starting a kitchen remodel I'm really wishing I had that space open on my panel for an additional 220V appliance.

So, the upshot of all this is to look over your options carefully. Since you're adding a ceiling it won't be any problem to run gas vents at the same time. There are a variety of gas heaters designed to heat barns and shops that are cheaper as they are not made to blend in with your home's interior.

I think there will be a way to have your primary heater also be able to operate in case of a power outage.

Lastly, if the heater you use produces mostly radiant heat, please research insulation options carefully. I had a friend of a friend who is a contractor helping me with my snake room and he tried to talk me into "normal" insultion. I ignored him and forged ahead with my own approach and am very glad I did. I heat that 17x9x8 snake room to 82* for very little money. I used 1" foil faced insulation board that was cut to fit each wall cavity and with an air space on each side. Works very well.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)