Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For those who have reptile rooms: At my old house I had the pleasure of having a furnaced heated reptile room in which the furnace worked great. At our new place, I have a separated building in the back that is 12wx20lx8 tall. Im in california so winters are not severe but its been getting into the 40's at night and the building is getting down to 68 with an electric oil heater. Is there a better way to heat a room? My target temp is 72 to 75 for night temps. Thanks

I am a big fan of electric radiant. A little expensive to install, but cheaper to run.

I think you have it backwards! Cheap to install but super expensive to run! LOL. I am in MI and I have electric radiant heat and it cost me a fortune to run! Is propane gas or natural gas an option Mark? Not sure about that in CA with pipelines(natural gas) and earthquakes???? Gas forced air would be my choice whether it be propane or ng. There is also infrared but not sure how expensive it is. I know a lot of autobody shops here use it because it does not stir up the air and makes it nicer for painting.

Thanks. Forced air would be my first choice and is what I had at my previous home. Less expensive and heats amazingly well. Electric is really my only option so wasn't sure if there are some electric heaters that work better than others?

The electric baseboard radiant heat is very inexpensive and easy to install. THat is the way I would go. Also there are some nice electric forced air wall units that are pretty efficient as far as electric goes. Where is your new place Mark? I just thought of it too if it is mild you might want to go with a heat pump. I had that when I lived in TN and it was great. It is to cold here in MI though for them to be efficient. They are more expensive to install but if is something you can do yourself and save a ton of money. It is a forced air system too.

Tom

They can be used to cool in the summer. They are a lot more efficient that the radiant heat because they use the heat that is in the air so you get like a 3 or for to 1 ratio where as radiant is a 1 to 1.

Tom

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Im still in california. I decided to use an electric oil heater, a fan to blow warm air from the top down, and at night have some large heat mats turn on with timers so lizards can get warmer if they desire to do so. I was going to use two oil heaters but each one uses 1500 watts so it will be cheaper and use way less wattage running heat mats. Those ideas were good though

hey how about a wood stove i heat my house with one friend has one in his garage. if u pack it @ night for a good overnight burn your temps will stay 75 80 no problem as long as your insulated good. plus its free heat. and no its not dangerous if u do it right and season your wood.

Insulation, Insulation, Insulation is the cheapest way to keep your heating costs down. Check out the displays at COSTCO for some of the latest technologies as far as that goes. The loft above this garage is 600sqft. It was heated by multiple electric means and it was expensive to maintain. Electricity is convenient, but with California prices, I would look into alternatives.
Good luck

Thanks for all the insight. I think I got it down now. Maintaining minimum night temp at 74.

Hi Mark,
I also have a heated reptile room for my cycluras and other iguanas (Ctenosaura,Fijis,..) and the temperature goes down at night to 60-68F, every winter. And no problems since 25 years! If you want to keep iguanas in your building, then you can be sure that these temperatures are not a problem for them.
I would use the sun, to heat up a large tank and use the warm water to heat up the building at night! I do the same here in cold europe.
rgds
Juergen

CYCLURA.EU

I think you got it Mark. Good luck!