Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just spent a lot of time wiring up my rack really nicely following a diagram that was posted on here quite a while ago and think that this might not be the best way to do it.

The person had a diagram of the tape wired in parallel (as I just finished wiring it) and I am getting very little heat off of it with the dimmer on its highest setting. It isn't even breaking the 75 degree mark inside of my individual containers.

Does anybody have any real experience and know if it would be better for me to wire them in series instead? (I think by wiring them in parallel each "level" is only getting the 10 watts for thee 1 foot section of heat tape... but if I wire them in series then the wattages will add up to 30 watts? I would really love some advice right about now

Thanks, Trevor

Wire them all seperate. Get an surge protector with 6 outlets and plug em in. 6 ft extension cords are cheap.

Although, I have my hatchling rack (BP's) wired parallel, in 5 30" strips, I don't get any heat loss. And it sticks around 89.5 rather well.

Good luck.

>>I just spent a lot of time wiring up my rack really nicely following a diagram that was posted on here quite a while ago and think that this might not be the best way to do it.
>>
>> The person had a diagram of the tape wired in parallel (as I just finished wiring it) and I am getting very little heat off of it with the dimmer on its highest setting. It isn't even breaking the 75 degree mark inside of my individual containers.
>>
>>Does anybody have any real experience and know if it would be better for me to wire them in series instead? (I think by wiring them in parallel each "level" is only getting the 10 watts for thee 1 foot section of heat tape... but if I wire them in series then the wattages will add up to 30 watts? I would really love some advice right about now
>>
>>Thanks, Trevor
>>
-----
- Joel Smith

"If you're not part of the solution, you're still part of the problem"

Are you sure there isn't something else causing the low temps? I found that a lot of the clips supplied with the heat tape weren't crimping all the way through the plastic. I had to use my dremel to 'sand' away the plastic where the connections were so the clips made clean connections.

Here's the diagram I posted last year, maybe the one you remember.

-----
Rob Jenkins
Have you seen the GeckoCam?
Herptopia Reptiles
Email Me

Actually... they have gotten up to temperature quite nicely.... thank you .... again!

Anyways... I attached those little sticky thermometers to the back wall of the bin at the end where the heaters are and they weren't really registering any change.... so I put a sensor on the floor from a digital thermometer and it is up around 88.5 right now. I'm happy with that if that is where it stays, but is the floor temp all I should really be worried about? or should it be a bit above 90 so the air is a bit warmer?

They should be fine if you keep the ground in the cages over the heat tape around 88-90F. I doubt the air would get that cold in there since they're not that large. I keep the actual tape on my racks around 95, which does the trick inside the cages. Keep the humid hide on the heat tape and they'll be happy.

Glad you got it working.
-----
Rob Jenkins
Have you seen the GeckoCam?
Herptopia Reptiles
Email Me

I am not an electrician but from my basic understanding of Ohm's law it would not be a good idea to attempt wiring flexwatt in series. In fact, it could pose quite a fire risk. Flexwatt is designed with the proper resistance to work at regular house voltages. Wiring in parallel keeps the voltage at the same level but adds up the amps from each piece of flexwatt. This is what you want. Wiring in series would leave the total amps constant but add up the voltages. Thus you would end up with a much higher voltage than the flexwatt was ever intended to work at and this could lead to failure of the product potentially resulting in a fire. If this is wrong then hopefully someone more knowledgeable about this will clear things up but I wouldn't risk trying it. If your flexwatt isn't heating up very well then you might want to check and make sure that you have good connections. A poor connection would result in less current flow and thus the tape wouldn't heat as much.

Chad
-----
Leopard Gecko Directory
Leopard Gecko Genetics Calculator

yeah.. I think it is alright now... I just didn't "feel the heat" right away and I guess I started to get excited after doing all those nice solder connections

The voltage wouldn't add up... I think that the current would be higher through three of them in series since the total wattage wattage of one sheet one sheet one sheet would be 30W like it was one single sheet three feet long.

In parallel the current to each one would remain the same as if only one sheet was hooked up and therefore the wattage would only be the 10W total per foot.

I think this is how it works... its been a while since I've been in school

Trevor

PS.. when did this forum become a physics class?

You may be right but I'm not sure since I too haven't studied this in quite a while. Regardless though, wiring in series would not be the way intended by the manufacturer and would thus be potentially dangerous so I wouldn't recommend that anyone try it.

Chad
-----
Leopard Gecko Directory
Leopard Gecko Genetics Calculator