Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am interested in making a set-up for salamanders, leopard gecko hibernation and in general enclosure temperature regulation that will enable me to keep temps from rising above the upper limits of whichever specie is in an enclosure. Primarily the problem is that summer temps here are liable to hit 90 F or higher and a animal such as a salamander is usually best off below 70 F.
My current train of thought is to pull the parts from a electric cooler like the ones people use for camping and to find a way to rig that with a heat mat and then wire up a digital thermostat that is capable of creating a night time drop as well as maintain a day time temp.
I am yet to find a product that actually does this for such a small application as say a 6 cubic foot enclosure. I also fear that if I found such a product already in existence it will be insanly priced.

I really would like to start keeping and breeding salamanders but I think its best that I wait till I figure this one out.
Any thoughts or info???
Thanks

Many years ago I looked into buying a thermoelectric cooler (same thing as what's used in those electrical coolers) and rigging it inside a cage that required significant night time temperature drops. An electrician friend of mine helped me figure out everyhing I needed. Thermostats, volage transforums, the thermoelectric devide.

What ultimately stopped me was that it was not clear that the TC would be powerful enough to cool down the cage given it's design, construction, ventilation, etc.

But it was the mid 90's and all the parts were available. It should be even easier today.

Another option for amphibians, depending on the species, would be to hook up a misting system that ran through a beverage cooling coil. I have no idea how well this would work. You might have to have a lot of drainage on the cage to account for the volume of mist required to cool the cage.

Another problem with this would be limitations on the system. If you used a very fine mist to reduce the volume of water it would warm up as it hit the air. If you used a larger droplet the warming effect would be reduced but you'd need a much higher volume beverage cooler, not to mention your cage would have to deal with this.

Lastly, a lexan fronted wine cooler could perhaps be hooked up to a combination timer/thermostat and then terrariums could be kept inside. One of the soda coolers seen at gas stations might also work.

Hope this makes sense. I wrote very quickly.