Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone know if the radiant heat panals are adjustable? Or would they still need to be wired to a dimmer or rheostat?
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www.BetterBoa.com

4.3 BCIs (Zeus, Athena, Xena, Jocasta, Menelaus, Aphodite, Hades)
4.4 Corn snakes

As far as I know, they are plug and play, so you need a thermostat to prevent overheating. I use rheostats in some applications, but I don't think I'd use one with a heat panel. As other factors change, the heat at the rheostat setting can vary greatly. For example, if you adjust the rheostat so you're at 88 degrees, you did so while the ambient temp. was also at a certain temperature. If this ambient temperature drops, so will the "set temp." Alternately, if the ambient temps. go up from when you made your setting, the "set temp" will also rise. You will need to babysit the heat a lot more with only a rheostat. Hope that helps a little???

Alright thanks, my room is heated seperatly from the hous and very constant. so a rheostat acts like a dimmer???
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www.BetterBoa.com

4.3 BCIs (Zeus, Athena, Xena, Jocasta, Menelaus, Aphodite, Hades)
4.4 Corn snakes

Rheostat is a dimmer. I use them on my radiant heat panels in vision cages. In this case some of the heat is transfered from the cages below and the panels do not need to be ran on high power nor do my cages melt when i stack them so it works great. I set them so the hot spot is in the low 90's during the HOTTEST PART OF THE DAY and because the panels will always be run at a constant power level my cages have a gradual and slight temp. drop at night. A rheostat is only safe to use if you are able to control and monitor the tempurature of the room that your cages are in. You can also plug an analog theromstat into the rheostat and get nearly the same balance and safety of a proportional thermostat but cheaper and with more wires