Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi I have a problem. I built a killer huge rack system out of think plywood. Now the only problem it the heat. I dont want my house to burn down so I was wondering what would be my safest gurantee. What I think I might do is use a kind of heat rope called "handy heat". Route out the wood and then cover it with sheet metal, controlling with a thermstat and surge protector. If anyone can help me, who has experience with heat tape that wood be great! Or if you have some sort of other alternative to heating up the cage, throw me the idea. I live in florida so I really only need to use the tape during the winter months. Also has anyone here every had any hazardous problem with the heat tape, is so, was their a way to prevent this mishap.
Thanks Alot
Steffen

If pictures of the rack would give everyone a better explaniation I can send you a picture, trust me its one of a kind! B/c I cant figure out how to post the pictures online

1.0 Anery Hondo (mickey)
0.1 Tangerine Hondo (kiki)
0.1 Brooksi King (Brook)
1.1 Califonia kings (Spaz and Jesapel)
1.1 Albino Nelsoni (Pharoh and Nefertiri)
3.0 Ball Pythons (King, Prince and Baller)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Mason)
0.1 Apricot Pueblan (Autumn)
0.1 Jungle Carpet (Delilah)
1.0 Argentine Tegu (Magoo)
0.1 Leporard Gecko (Gigit)

>>I dont want my house to burn down so I was wondering what would be my safest gurantee.

Safest? Heating the room, LOL. Honestly, I suspect the absolute safest approach is the use of rope-light but I'm not yet experienced enough with it's use to know if it will work for your application.

>>What I think I might do is use a kind of heat rope called "handy heat".

Is that a product used to keep water pipes warm? I doubt that's your safest choice.

>>Route out the wood and then cover it with sheet metal, controlling with a thermstat and surge protector.

Good idea. Expanded PVC also works well to cover heat sources.

>>I live in florida so I really only need to use the tape during the winter months.

How cold does it get in the room where this rack will be?

>>If pictures of the rack would give everyone a better explaniation I can send you a picture, trust me its one of a kind!

You can open a kingsnake gallery account for free and upload the picture from your computer. Then post again and just use the drop down menu when you post. It says "Select Image from Photo Gallery".

Or you can send it to me.

chris_harper2 at yahoo dot com

remove the spaces, change the "at" to "@" and the "dot" to "."
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

you can run 4 inch or 3 inch mylar heat tape and run it in parallel....know it depends on how many levels and feet of heat tape but my rack i used 10 12" pieces wich equals 200 watts or 1.666666 amps (watts divided by 120 volts equals amps) and it is all on one plug and one dimmer.

hope this helps
Paul
HTDesigns

ps whats up Chris H