Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My basement maintains a temp of 56 degree's or so. The room Im building is fully insulated floor,ceiling and walls and is 12'x12' . I want to heat the whole room to 80-82 or so degree's any suggestions on how to do this safely.

Keith
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I use a oil filled radiator style heater that you can buy at any Walmart or Target. It works really well. The only thing is it takes up some room. But I have no problem giving up some space to maintain the heat that I want.
Marty Hartman

I also prefer the oil-filled radiator style heaters. In fact I won't use anything else.

I do have some advice on their use, however. I run a cheap auxillary thermostat rated for 2000 watts. It's a very basic thermostat I buy from farm supply stores. I believe they call it a thermostat for "milk house heaters". Maybe that's just regional talk, I don't know.

I do not recommend trusting the built in thermostat.

When I first set up the heater I adjust the built in thermostat so it heats the room just slightly hotter than my desired temp. That way if my auxillary thermostat fails I know the heater is less likely to overheat the room.

I plug a multi-strip outlet into the thermostat and then plug the adjusted heater into a multi-strip. I also plug a box fan into the multi-strip. That way when the thermostat cycles on the fan also turns on and moves the heat around the room. I could just run the fan all the time but I prefer using the fan as an audible indicator of how often the thermostat is cycling.

If the fan is running all the time it might mean the built in thermostat needs to be turned up slightly.

I like the audible indicator.lol
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Randall L Turner Jr.

You never experience life until you have kids..then you realize what you should have done rather then what you did do