Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just built a rack system and have it situated on top of my Bearded Dragon cage. The cage is wood and has a ZooMed Halogen UV bulb in it. The problem I have is that the bulb produces soooo much heat that the temp on the bottom shelf of my rack is maxing out at about 105 degrees. Way too hot for the ball pythons that will be in the rack. I have tried raising the rack off the top of the cage a little but I'm thinking I would need to raise it about 6" in order to dissipate the heat. I was thinking about laying a sheet of styrofoam or a similar foam product under the rack to insulate it from the heat coming from beneath. Do you think this would do the trick? Any other suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Pete

Try using a rheostat or get a Helix or Ranco thermostat.
I use Ranco. They will maintain very accurate temps.
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Greg
www.imageevent.com/gmherps

...the problem is with the heat coming from the PowerSun bulb in the cage beneath the rack.
Pete

What is the wattage these ranco thermostats will handle ?

>>I just built a rack system and have it situated on top of my Bearded Dragon cage. The cage is wood and has a ZooMed Halogen UV bulb in it. The problem I have is that the bulb produces soooo much heat that the temp on the bottom shelf of my rack is maxing out at about 105 degrees. Way too hot for the ball pythons that will be in the rack. I have tried raising the rack off the top of the cage a little but I'm thinking I would need to raise it about 6" in order to dissipate the heat. I was thinking about laying a sheet of styrofoam or a similar foam product under the rack to insulate it from the heat coming from beneath. Do you think this would do the trick? Any other suggestions are welcome.

Styrofoam might help. Depends on how far it is from the heat source. Styrofoam is a decent insulator, but if it comes in contact with the heat source, it may tend to burn or shrink. I'd probably start with Styrofoam and see how it goes. If that doesn't work you might also try a fan. Maybe some small computer fans (80mm) or a household fan pointed so that it will blow the hot air away from the rack? Can't quite visualize your setup so I'm not sure if this could work or not...

If you put styrene foam directly over the beardie cage, you will allow the wood under it to reach dangerously high temps. You need ventilation above the cage!

Way better to raise the rack up on some 2x4s, then put styrene foam attached to the underside of the bottom shelf, not on top of the beardie cage.

I agree with Mark. Great idea!

I use wood spacers with some of my cages for the same reason. To stop the heat from transferring, there needs to be a few inches of breathing room in the space between the hot cage ceiling and bottom cage in the rack.

Bill