Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Looking for opinions on how to heat a basement room 14 x 30 with 8' ceiling.Lots of electric heaters on the market to choose from.
Also looking at electric base board?
If anyone knows something good,please post a link.
P.S. The block walls will be furred out insulated and paneled.
It already has a drop ceiling.
Thanks,
Mike
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"Upon Thy Belly Thou Shalt Go"

what are the current temps ?
what are u expecting for heated room temps?

One thing to think about - if you need to heat the room, will you also need to cool it during the summer?

If the answer is "Yes", you might consider one of the more expensive portable heat/AC units. They ain't cheap but they're effective & easy to incorporate. Figure around $600.

I've got an enclosed garage that's aprox. 12 x 18 that I keep temps about 70 degrees in with nothing but a small household electric space heater. I live in a mountainous region of the tri-state area of NC/TN/GA. Days with temps not getting above low-mid 30s. And some days not even that high, but mostly averaging somewhere around 40 or so.

The 220/240 watt baseboard heaters are fairly expensive to run. That's what's in my home, and rarely used. They're just not ver efficient. There's also on in my enclosed garage but the space heater heats the room much better, so I don't use the baseboard heater.

The more you put into insulating the room the more heating/cooling options you'll have. Lining a room the size of yours with Refletix can be costly but will save money in the long run and well worthwhile.

Have a good one!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

If I could keep the room at 75 or so I would be happy.
No need to cool it in the summer.It stays about 60-65 in the summer.
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"Upon Thy Belly Thou Shalt Go"

I use radiant cove heaters from my local electric supplier. You can see them in these two pictures of my snake room. They are the long tan strips mounted up near the ceiling.

I got these cheap as "scratch and dent" models. They are wired on 220V and are extremely efficient. I think in a perfect world I would have used large Radiant Heat Panels on the ceiling. They would take up zero wall space and also don't get as hot on the surface so cages could be set closer to them.

One warning is that these are any radiant heater produce radiant heat so you will have much higher heat loss through a concrete basement floor than you would with forced air (convective) heat.

If you can I would consider insulating the floor.

I am not a fan of baseboard heating as it is expensive and not very efficient relative to its price.

Also, when you insulate the block walls be sure to use a radiant barrier. Trust me.

Sorry I missed this thread until now.
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Currently keeping a small collection of various Gonyosoma. Both G. janseni and G. oxycephala.

Chris,thanks for that info.
Mike
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"Upon Thy Belly Thou Shalt Go"