I have a few questions about heating a home-built rack...
I'm building another melamine rack for my ball pythons. I used back heat in my first one but I think it's a bit wasteful, as it seems to take quite a bit of power to keep the back of the tubs warm even in an 80-degree room. That said, I'd like to try bottom heat on the new melamine rack that I'm building.
The tubs I'm using are 33 x 17 x 6" sterilites with a ridge around the bottom perimeter. They sit on the ridge, so most of the actual bottom is off the surface they rest on. This should provide some airspace for the heat tape (about ½”), but I'll still probably mount some 1/8" or 1/4" thick strips under the tubs so they don't ever slide over the tape when being pulled in & out.
My questions are:
1. Should I use 3", 4", or 11” flexwatt under the sterilite tubs?
2. a) How do I mount the thermostat probe to measure the temp properly - should it be inside the tub on top the substrate (usually newspaper, but sometimes aspen)? b) If it’s in the tub, it'll have to be fastened somehow or the snakes will just push it away – how best to do that? d) If it’s not in the tub, how do I accurately keep track of the temp in the tub?
3. This rack will have 10 tubs stacked vertically in it. Do you usually just use a probe on one tub for the entire rack?
4. Do you usually put a thin piece of foil or anything over the heat tape so that even if the tub were to sag it wouldn’t actually contact the flexwatt?
Feel free to comment on issues that I might have missed, too. Any help or tips would be appreciated!
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