Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys,

Although this summer in New England has been (let's face it) pretty terrible, the past couple of days have been REALLY nice. Now, my bedroom faces East and gets beat on by the sun, so 2 days now I have come home to 100 (by temp gun) temps in my room! My snakes are all out cruising but my beardie is way on the cool side gaping.

I've heard of people using thermostats to control temps for heat mats, is there a way of doing that with my lamps? The UV obviously doesn't throw much heat so I can leave that on all day, but I'm looking for a way to regulate the temps in the beardie cage a little better than just turning them off when I get home & feeling horribly guilty. heh.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance & sorry if this is a dumb question..

-Tami*

I use individual Helix Proportional Thermostats in all my enclosures. They dim the basking light as the temperature reaches the set temp. You can't put the probe on the basking spot so you are really controlling the ambient. Then you have to do some trial and error to get the correct bulb so the basking spot temp. is correct.

For now I would get 2 timers. One for the UVB and one for the basking light. The UVB leave on as usual. Have the other timer turn the basking light on as usual and then turn it off in the middle of the day. The risk is if your room gets near 100 (which is bad regardless) the basking bulb may be making it even hotter in his enclosure. The basking light going off will be like a hazy hot afternoon in nature. Temps. that are too high will cause dehydration and also could cause permanent neurological damage.

I would look to moving the cage into a cooler room. A room that stays in the seventies would be ideal. If the ambient temp of your room is getting into the high eighties or nineties it will be impossible to provide a cool end in the tank. Dimming the lights or adding vents/fans won't make a big difference. That's adding heat to an already heated situation

put an AC in the room that will go on if the room temperature exceeds 90F (this way it won't be as hard on your electric bill). Also, put dark solid coverings on all windows in the room that face east (solid blinds work better at blocking heat than venetian style blinds).
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PHLdyPayne

Thanks guys!

I draped a big dark blanket over the window (pending a curtain purchase) & set the AC to kick on midday yesterday and the difference was enormous. Cool end of the tank was a chilly 68 & the basking spot was 102. So now I just have to do some tweaking but we're on our way.

I'd still love to invest in a thermostat - we are moving soon and will have all the herps in one room in the new house. Are they hugely expensive? How many fixtures can you control with one?

Ok you can scratch that price question - Google is my friend. But now slightly confused on setup, most websites aren't too clear about that part.

depends on the type of thermostat you buy. The snake forums tend to have alot more information about the various types of thermostats available, as they are used in rack systems to control heat.

In your new home if you want the room controlled by a thermostat more than the cage itself..most AC's have a built in thermostat and will turn off (some will have the fans continue to run though, to circulate air...check the manual that came with the AC unit). Central Air could be a bit tricky as it tends to go by the ambient temperature wherever sensor is placed upon installation (no clue where this is by default...whether it is on the AC controller/thermostat or elsewhere)

I suppose you can plug an AC unit into a thermostat to turn it on or off if the temperature reaches a certain high in the room, then shut it off when its under another temperature (say turn on AC at 85F, turn it off at 75F)

The way you have it now, I would adjust how cold your AC gets the room so it cools only to 75F.

Another thing to keep in mind is when you are in your new place, the room you have your reptiles may not have the same issue with getting too hot due to facing east. Or try and select a room that is north or south facing..and/or has little to no windows. Or just put everything in a basement room. (if it gets really cold in the basement (ie below 60F), a ceramic heater could be used to heat the room (providing the basement is finished and not just one big open area the same size as the main floor (cost much more to heat a large space than a small..though you could always build a reptile room in the basement if it is open) When heating the room, I wouldn't heat it more than 70F. Let the lights heat the rest of the cage, a 100watt bulb takes less power than a 6000 watt space heater.
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PHLdyPayne

I use Helix DBS-1000's. They are about $125. They handle up to 500 watts each.

The DBS-1000 is a proportional thermostat, meaning it dims the bulbs as the set temperature is approached, and keeps them at the correct brightness to maintain the set temp. There are also on/off thermostats that would shut off the lights when it gets too hot and turn them back on when it gets too cool. These should not be used.

In the picture below, if you look closely, the temp. probe runs down from the top of each enclosure, on the left side wall, about 3/4 of the distance from the front to the back. There is white tape covering all but the probe end so it's hard to see. The tip is about 1" above the basking platform. The thermostats keep the enclosure temp. on the hot side at 90. Then a combination of the correct bulb and venting allows me to get the correct basking temp. and cool side temp.

In the summer I use (1) Par 20 - 35 Watt flood light bulb in each enclosure. In the winter I use (2) Par 20 - 50 Watt flood light bulbs in each of the pictured enclosures.

Thanks again! I can't wait to get my new reptile room set up.