Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I want to run a 28"long piece of 11" heat tape down the back of a 4' tall cage I am building for my amazon boa. will this heat the cage or does it have to be on the bottom? (the cage is a corner cage the back is only 12" wide and the front is about 3' wide, sides and bottom are wood top is screen, and front and back are plexi glass)

What are the warmest and coldest year-round temperatures of the room where the cage will sit?

Unless it's a really warm room I doubt flexwatt will work, especially with a screen top.

Regardless, plexiglas is not something you want to attach flexwatt to. It will create a temp differential and cause the acrylic to warp and yellow.

If it's not to late I suggest a redesign of the cage (lose the screen top) and choosing a radiant heat panel over heat tape for the cage.

Chris is right the flexwatt alone will not heat the cage as it wont actually radiate that well and only heat the material its on.

I would look into the RHP ( radiant heat panels) for heating the cage and also 86 the screen top maybe if you have to just build a nice wood top to fit it and add some vents to the top sides of the cage for airflow
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I have 4 racks that use back heat, 11 inch flexwatt. Up until this last winter they were working fine. We had a very long, cold, and WET winter in So. Cal. I found that I was losing a lot of heat out the back. My boxes were also getting cold from the sides since the heat source was only on the back panel. I had to install 2 inch rigid insulation to the backs and sides of my rack to raise the temps and have better control of my evening temperature drop. You don't experience this type of problem when flexwatt or heat cable is run along a shelf and up a side to the next level.
Just my experience with back heat.
John Q