Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Besides low watt halogens, does anyone know of other low watt heat producing bulbs that are good to use for a wider angle of heat distribution?

Its hard to say unless you explain what you need a little more. I use Mercury Vapor bulbs for heat, light and UVB. They come in a few wattages. I use Self ballast 100s and 160s, but you can also get lower wattages if you go external ballast. You can read more on them at www.reptileuv.com

I'm not really sure what you are asking. Do you need more heat, more light, or both?

I use megarays and low watt halogens for basking,and fluorescents for light, looking for some extra background heat like an incandescent(no focused spot) and also maybe a wider basking area without having to group bulbs together. Low watt halogens make too small of a spot for what I want for one particular case. And the wider faced bulbs all seem to have the undesirable lens design that creates too hot of a spot in the middle.

You could look into the trex flood, or do you need something without UVB?

You know, I would contact Bob Mac. I ask him everything to do with set up and lighting, and he always has a great answer. He has been herping for years. You can call one of the numbers on the link that I gave you, and he is always really approachable.

It's interesting that your having issues with heating with low wattage halogens. I use them on all of my Uro's and have not had a single issue. I use the 50 watt in the summer because the temperature of my room has an effect on the enclosure temperature as well. 4 ft. cage with 4 halogens (50 watts) and my temps can't be any more perfect! Where did you purchase your halogens? Also, I believe halogen bulbs are the only type of low wattage bulb available and most if not all of them aren't carried or produced by reptile manufacturers, because they are for household lighting. It's very unfortunate that all "reptile oriented" light bulbs are either super expensive or require loads of wattage to produce more heat.

Halogens

I've seen those and you can only use them in the fixture manufactured for them. So in the long run they cost much more than purchasing a halogen for 10 bucks. I also heard that those bulbs are pretty crappy. Take a look at these,

http://www.proexotics.com/store/product.php?productid=16242&cat=249&page=1

These are what I use. I've also used the ones from Home Depot, but found that Proexotic's emit a little more heat as well as a wider heat range.

Happy Herping,

Paul