Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In the next few weeks I'll be moving my collection of repitles to a new location, as I need more space than the house has.lol Anyway the new place has electric baseboard heat. As I'm not sure how well it works and the fact that it can be expensive, here in the Northeast to use it. If my cages a well heated will it matter if I just keep the room at 68-70 degrees? This will most likely be a constant room temp for the winter months. Thanks

What are your cages made of? I would think that the plastic and glass cages would insulate slightly less efficiently than a custom wood cage (slightly being the key word there). I think keeping the room a little higher, like maybe 70-75 would be a better range as long as you could still provide each cage with it's own hot spot for digestion/thermoregulation. Depeding on the size of the room, I've used little portable heaters at 110 volts which run at 1500 watts and they keep the room quite nice and toasty and barely had any impact on my power bill at all. This is how I do my herp room, and I keep it at around 80 most of the time.
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Tom
TCJ Herps
"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

>>What are your cages made of? I would think that the plastic and glass cages would insulate slightly less efficiently than a custom wood cage (slightly being the key word there). I think keeping the room a little higher, like maybe 70-75 would be a better range as long as you could still provide each cage with it's own hot spot for digestion/thermoregulation. Depeding on the size of the room, I've used little portable heaters at 110 volts which run at 1500 watts and they keep the room quite nice and toasty and barely had any impact on my power bill at all. This is how I do my herp room, and I keep it at around 80 most of the time.

As long as the cages themselves are temping in the proper ranges and are checked daily then your room temp should have minimal impact on the animals.....however with a room temp slightly higher there is less cost in heating individual cages. The other upside is that IF a cage heating device should fail or burn out etc. the room itself will atleast keep them within a safe range.

Hope this helps
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Chris, my wife Mary
a dog, two cats, two birds, four snakes
oh and three kids

No one can really judge from the information you gave.

The first question is: Does your current set-up provide adequate heat for whatever animals you’re keeping?

If so, are whatever sources of heat you are using running close to their maximum output most of the time, or do they have any reserve?

What is the ambient temperature in the room(s) where the cages are now kept?

If, for instance, your ambient room temps at your old place are, say, 78 degrees, then a 10 degree drop may be very significant, indeed.

I'm in a similar situation out in California. As others have said, it's hard to know what will happen since we don't know how large your cages are, what you're using to heat them, etc.

That said, I find that winter temps in the 68-70 degree range do require more heating than summer temps. Looking at my Helix thermostats in the winter, I find that they're almost always sending some amount of power to the heating elements. In the summer, they'll frequently shut off the power altogether.

If you find that you're in a marginal situation, consider buying one of those oil-filled electric heaters to raise the background temperature of the room. They're supposed to be somewhat efficient and much safer than other types of "space" heaters. That's what I did...

I would heat my room to about 78, but it is not always necessary. I like the option of heating a room because the safety aspects. Heat shuts off,..etc. Plus you have an added benefit of not subjecting your herp to cold drafts that come in the cage and have to warm. If it is a small room you can save money that way. You can set your heat devices on a timer and have them shut off at night saving money.

This is just my opinion..
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Symatic

"You can't appreciate Shakespeare until you've read him in the original Klingon."

I keep my house at 68 degrees. The rack that I have my snakes in hold the temp just fine. It's a AP Rack with a T-stat. I have the T-stat set at "95 degree ON" and "105 degree off" the temp holds at 85 degree warm side amd 75 cool side. When the temp warms up I will need to readjust the T-stat. So its all in how your cages or racks hold the heat and what type of heat you have.

Thanks everyone. I appriciate all the help.