Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have all of my herps in one room and about 400w in heat and 100w in lighting. I was wondering if anyone could tell me if it is more efficient to use the heating bulbs or use a space heater w/ thermostat. I would still provide basking lamps for some of the repts but with the latter option they could be less wats. Any imput is appreciated,
Casey

This is a good question, but one without a concrete answer for all applications.

In general, if the individual heat sources for your cages are providing more than supplemental heat, it will probably be cheaper for you to use a spacer heater to increase ambient temperatures and then just provide basking areas.

I used an oil-filled space heater with an auxillary thermostat and was able to heat a large room for about $10 per month. But it was an upstairs bedroom that received a lot of heat from the area below.

What is the ambient temperature of your room away from the cages? What species are you keeping? How large is the room?

Space heaters use upwards of 1500 Watts. 1500 Watts running full for 1 hour costs as much as your 400 Watts of heaters on full for close to 4 hours.

Depends on what you're keeping. Example, is a room temp of 80 OK? Maybe a space heater can keep that up by running only 20 minutes per hour? Hard to say.

Another idea is to use a space heater to keep the room about 75 when its cold. Then, you can use dimmers/controllers to keep your existing cage heaters from using the full 400 Watts. Again, depends on the insulation of the room as to whether it is more economical.

Tell me about it! I heat the whole room and my gas/electric bill just came-$499.91!! I gotta get that rack system up and running or brumate everybody from December on.Arggghhh!

Arggghhh!

The ambient temp is 78 during the day and varies from cage to cage. I have a pair of Hog Island boas, a Columbian boa, a Bull Snake, a golden gecko, a Mali Uro, a pair of Horsefields tortoises, a carpet python and a pair of tigerleg monkey frogs in that room. a 11'X 11' bedroom. I think Im gonna try it out anyways after i find the most efficient heater. and if it doesent work ill use it for my garage. Thanks for the Imput.