Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm converting my laundry room into a small reptile room. The dimensions are 6'x6' (should have said very small I guess...), and instead of using a separate heat source for each snake's cage, I'd like to heat the entire room to around 84 F.

Has anyone used a heat fan for something like this? I'm looking at the ones with ceramic elements, and I'd attach it to a Johnson or Ranco thermostat...I think a proportional might burn the motor out.

Calling out Big Hurt and Chris Harper!

I'd be interested to hear some suggestions as well. I need to heat a slightly larger room to about ~85. Safety of course is my main concern here. I've seen the oil-filled radiators mentioned here in the past but since I've lived in florida my whole life, I've never had to use them and really don't know a whole lot about them. Are these an option for heating small rooms 24/7 ??

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Jon F

To Both of you fine gentlemen.

I myself used a oil filled radient heater in my 9' x 20' room for years. Prior to insulating the entire room I had to run it at 1500 watts year round obviously not at max temp year round. However our winters in North Dakota get pretty chilly.

Currently I know longer run a heater in the room at all and it maintains temps on its own. All the cages put off a lot of heat. I run a cicular fan to provide air flow and open the door to allow air changes and cool air.

Room size has a great deal of effect on temp but its the insulation that makes the biggest difference. I would recommend some sort of insulation on the walls if they are currently uninsulated, how much and of what type is all up to the individual circumstance.

I would look into a cheaper low power oil filled radient heater if any they are efficant and cheap. You can also run them off a proportional thermostat. As for the fan it may burn out with a proportional but the better quality ones will most likely not burn out.

Remember 85 is pretty warm I myself keep my room around 75 - 80, its comfortable for me, allows a night drop and is easy to maintain cage temps with supplemental heat.

I would also recommend venting the room as a small space will heat up quickly.

Best of Luck
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Jeremy

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

0.1 Sunglow "Khal" RTB
0.1 Snow "Khal" RTB
1.0 Double Het "Khal" Sunglow RTB
1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow RTB's
1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.0.13 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's
1.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's
0.1 Suriname RTB
0.0.7 Normal Suriname Hybrid's
0.1 Anerthrystic RTB
3.6.14 Red Bearded Dragons
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.3 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
1.0 Child

I have use both oil-filled radiant heaters and the smaller forced air types to heat small rooms. Without a doubt I much prefer the oil-filled radiator types. They are safer and generally longer lasting, although I do understand that there are a whole new type of fan type heaters that are also very good.

I would also recommend a radiant barrier of some sort. Is the room already insulated? If so then I might just repaint the room with some of radiant blocker mixed in. If the room is not insulated then you have a few options. I won't go into that until I know more about your situation, however.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Malaysian locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

My room is just a 6x6 laundry room in the interior of the building. There is a small closet off one corner of the room that has the water heater and electric furnace in it, which might help keep the room warm. I was planning on running the heater on an on-off thermostat rather than a proportional; my snakes are all in plastic tubs so I think even with the temperature variation due to the thermostat, the cage temps would stay pretty stable.

Tell me more about these oil-filled heaters.

There are many of these heaters, most of them look something like this:

In my area they are readily available at hardware stores, especially this time of the year. I ran mine off of an on-off Tstat that I picked up at an farm supply store many years ago. It was cheap and still works. Just make sure you have a Tstat rated for the wattage you'll be running. Chances are you'll be able to run your heater at the lowest setting, especially if you insulate the room. The lowest setting on most of these is 600 or 700 watts.

It sounds like the walls that form your room are uninsulated so I would add some insulation if you can afford it. I had a 7x7 room in an uninsulated and unheated garage (in South Dakota no less) and just lined the walls, ceiling and doors with a single layer of Reflectix insulation. Reflectix is the insulation that sort of looks like bubble wrap covered with aluminum foil. Here is a picture of that room where you can see the walls lined with the Reflectix:

I was able to heat this room to 84* with one of the oil-filled heaters set to 600 watts. Even when it was below freezing in the garage the heater did not need to run all day to heat the room. I was surprised by this, especially since the floor was left bare.

The Reflectix is fire-rated and can be left out in the open like I had it. Since I only used staples and foil tape I was able to take it down and reuse it when I moved. It is very handy stuff and I think it would be money well spent for your project.

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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Malaysian locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

Oh okay thanks. My old boss had a couple of those in his shop office and it seemed pretty safe, considering the floor underneath them was covered in loose sheets of paper and trash....

I'm still not sure though if I'll need to insulate the room, because it's completely interior. I guess I'll work on the setup and see how things go. And even if I don't need to insulate, I'm sure it would help anyhow.

thanks

Whether you insulate or not really depends on how warm the surrounding area will be. If you need to heat the room to 84* and the area surrounding the room will be 74*, for example, then insulation will probably not help all that much.

There is some rule of thumb about this but I don't recall what it is. Also, assuming this is a standard 2x4 wall with drywall on both sides then the air space in the wall cavities will already provide some degree of insulation.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Malaysian locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

That is correct, ON/OFF thermostat is best for any heater that involves a fan motor or moving parts. And yes, the cage temp will change slower than the air temp. So I agree with using an ON/OFF type controller in that case.

Now, if you were heating the room with say a radiant heat panel (no moving parts, no motors), a proportional would be a good way to go.

I like all of the available thermostats out there. Currently I use a Ranco thermostat to control a 24 VDC relay that switches the power to lights. With this setup a person can use any ON/OFF controller out there, even the household thermostats sold at Home Depot.
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Mark