Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need some help brainstorming. This is the first summer I've been in this house. There's no air conditioner of any kind. It's getting HOT and my house is getting hot with it.

I'm starting to freak out about my lizard room - I've had to kill power on all my tanks mid-day recently because the cool side temps are rising into the 90s. All the cages are now on the floor (a few degrees cooler down there). And I've been rotating the timers so the lights are coming on and going off earlier, so they still have their full day, but it ends before it gets too hot.

I've been working to enclose most of my lighting within the tanks, hoping that would allow lower wattages and less heat escaping into the room. It's kind of working, but the whole house is now getting ridiculously hot. I'm sitting here sweating while I type in 85 degree temps (mid-90s outside) and the lizard room is near 90 with all the lights killed.

There's no possiblity of a window a/c unit - no proper windows.

The worst of it is, I'm leaving in two weeks for 5 MONTHS with my trusty housesitter left in charge. She can't be here all day to monitor temperatures. She's only going to drop by in the mornings to feed and clean, then she's gone.

I don't know what to do. If anyone has ideas or thoughts, PLEASE post them.
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Uromastyx geyri (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Uromastyx dispar maliensis (Tank, Turtle, and Spike)
1.1 Uromastyx ornata (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
2.1.2 Anolis carolinensis (Bowser, Sprocket, Leeloo, and Pickles 1&2)
1.1 Felis domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

I know what it is like to have it hot. My friend's house is so warm that she just keeps the uvb lights on and it is warm enough with out the heat bulbs. Maybe you can just put the uvb on, but hopefully you don't have the mercury vapor which you can't shut off. Have you thought about getting a small window a/c that will keep the room a cooler temp so you can leave your lights on a timer?
Casey

Alter your animals cycle to evening on daytime off.

Move your heaters closer and reduce the wattage. Have you looked into the MegaHeat units? They're focused 60W units, very efficient. I've got them installed in just about everything right now with lots of success.

If you installed an A/C, if you're paying $X to heat the cages, you'll be paying (pulling numbers out of thin air) 4*$X to cool all that area down too. Assuming the house air is cooler than outside air, you could run a duct out of the room to a window and blow the hot ambient air outside, automatically intaking the household air. You could even put that fan on a thermostat. Make sure to run the ducting to the extreme side of the room up high or else you don't know what "type" of air you'll be rejecting.
You could install an A/C in a similar fashion with a duct running out, but the complexity will increase a little and you'll be burning a lot more ergs with competing intentions.

Enclosing your lights into the cages will probably result in naturally higher ambient temperatures inside, all depending on how much radiation was lost and not focused before versus now. If you have any additional fixtures attempting to set a temperature on the "cool" side of the containers, it's probably time to eliminate them completely as even the ambient exterior temperature would be well suited on its own.

If you REALLY wanted to play a technical game, you could install a solid container of water as a thermal ballast. Since the ratio of Joules to cubic centimeters is very high, it will resist change much better than other materials. You could then attach an aluminum heatsink and a fan to the mass with a fan blowing over it in an attempt to disburse those excess ergs

I was looking into a system like this:
http://www.picotech.com/enviromon.html
but I can't quite justify it yet.
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2.3.0 uromastyx geyri (Saharan/Nigerian)
0.0.4 uromastyx hardwickii (Indian)
3.6.0 uromastyx macfadyeni (Somalian)
1.2.0 uromastyx ocellata (Sudanese)
1.3.0 uromastyx ornata (Ornate)
1.0.0 uromastyx benti pseudophilbyi

don't they make AC/heater floor units now? it may not be something you want to spend so much money on before a trip but i am sure it would be worth the money over the years. where are you going?
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vonnie
***There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it. Mary Wilson Little ***

My hubby's work is sending him (and me) to Scotland for 5 months. Super exciting, but I'm unhappy about leaving all the critters.
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Uromastyx geyri (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Uromastyx dispar maliensis (Tank, Turtle, and Spike)
1.1 Uromastyx ornata (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
2.1.2 Anolis carolinensis (Bowser, Sprocket, Leeloo, and Pickles 1&2)
1.1 Felis domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

Try Costco for the portable A/C unit, or can you get a fan in the room?
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Tricia

2.0 Canine (Sam, 10 y/o Choc. Lab & Disco, 8 m/o Fawn Boxer)
3.1 Feline (Pete, Tony, Sebastian, & Cleo)
1.0 Hamster (Cheddar)
3.2 Crested Geckos (Inky, Spot, Vanilla, Crestie, & No name)
1.1 Bearded Dragons (Buddy & Sunshine)
2.0 Uromastyx (Houston, Ornate & Slifer, Egyptian)
Too many assorted tropical fish, bettas, goldfish

I've got two floor fans in the house that help with the heat. One in the uro's room could make quite a difference. Play with the place setting and monitor the temps for optimum cooling.

-Jim
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2.1 - Rocky, Runako, and RoxyIII (my care sheets)

(ok, I didn't read all the previous posts, maybe some repetition)

My room is also getting really too hot, and I have window open and a blower in a roof. That haven't been really much helpful, but I think it's a start to have those.

So, there is some free-standing air-conditioning-units in markets, here in finland they are quite cheap, too.
That would help.

And of course you can chainge the bulbs to smaller ones, or if you use multiple bulbs in your terrariums, you can take one off.

And you can connect the heating system in to a separeted timer, so it will fade for a half an hour in the mid-day. I've been using this way, and that's really helpful.

By the way, If you normaly don't give any water to your uromastyx's, I think you should ask the housesitter to give, so at least they don't dehydrate se easily.

-V

Thanks, guys! Please continue to post if you have anything else to add! I'm trying a few things now, and we'll see how it goes. *Fingers crossed*
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Uromastyx geyri (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Uromastyx dispar maliensis (Tank, Turtle, and Spike)
1.1 Uromastyx ornata (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
2.1.2 Anolis carolinensis (Bowser, Sprocket, Leeloo, and Pickles 1&2)
1.1 Felis domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

Well we should be hitting 90's soon so it will help you prepare for August when it's usually a touch warmer. Really after August things should tone down. Just typing out loud here, maybe just run less overall for the next month- lower watt bulbs, less lights on, get a good fan in there circulating. Make sure the lizard room is not facing west! keep plenty of ventilation.