RHPs

[Wykyd]

I'm going to be using a RHP in the enclosure I'm in the process of building. My main question is which one I should go with. There's a few highly recommended brands out there with vastly different prices. Since this will be my first RHP, I'm looking for some input from those who have experience with them. My main concerns are the size of the panels. Pro Heat is the only one that is kinda square and doesn't cover over 3/4 of the enclosure, but the prices is WAY higher. Is it maybe better to go with two smaller panels? The brands I'm looking into are:

Pro Heat - 135 watt, 18"x24"x1" - $169.95 + $19.95 S&H
RBI -120 Watt 12.5"x32.5"x1.75" - $94.99
Boaphile - 150 Watt, 40"x11" - $105.00
Helix - 162 watts, 40"x11" - $105.00 + $12.95 S&H

[bigsnakegirl785]

You should only use one proper-sized panel, don't want to risk a fire hazard.

If you can't afford Pro Heat, then go ahead and buy a cheaper one. I have 4 RBI panels and they work quite well for me. I just got 2 of them over the winter, but I've had the other two for roughly 3 years now without a hitch.

[trailblazer295]

Pro products RHPs

[jpsteele80]

I use reptile basics and I love them, better to buy one big pannel. One thing i don't see being talked about here and not sure if your aware of but it's not just buying a heat panel. You also need a way to regulate that heat IE. a herpstat or some other device with a probe other wise it will blast full heat all the time and never shut off.

[Wykyd]

Yeah, I'm using a VE tstat for the enclosure. See enclosure thread (http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/general-enclosure-discussion/112614-diy-boa-enclosure.html)

[pet_snake_78]

I found I didn't need a very big heat panel. With heat tape, I would get a hot spot and that is it No real effect on the ambient at all. With the heat panels, they also raise the ambient temperatures. I keep my snake room in the upper 70s most of the year so for me a 40 watt heat panel in a 48x24x12 produced a sizable 90ish degree hotspot not even on full blast plus raises even the code side by 3-4 more degrees and could easily do more if a species needed it. RBI's have worked just fine for me. I tried an 80 watt but it was way too much for an enclosure that size, couldnt hit the hotspot without overheating the entire cage. The heat rising might be an issue if there's no space between cages in the stack.

[Wykyd]

I spoke with the guy from RBI and he told me rule of thumb for sizing the panel is 1/4 to 1/3 of the total enclosure floor square footage. He recommended their 160 watt panel which is 12.5"x42.5". My main concern with that is it will cover over half the cage in length even tho it is only 1/5 of the cage floor square footage.

[jpsteele80]

I have a 6x3x2 cage for my retics and I have an 80watt panel that almost covers half the cage, gotta remember heat panels apply heat differently than a bulb or a different heat source. Its almost like a theraputic effect on the way it penetrates heat into the body plus is doesn't run constantly, once the area is heated to the desired temp it shuts of till it drops 2 degrees or so the turns back on again and so on. The length on a 160 watt is huge, how long is your cage. As long as they can get away from it to a cool side doesn't matter how big it is.

[Wykyd]

The cage is 72"Wx36"Dx24"H

[pet_snake_78]

I tend to think the 80watt would do the job unless it's a cool room (under 70-75F).

[Wykyd]

Yeah, that was the other big factor... the room is my basement (house is a bi-level). Tile floor laid over concrete. Summer is roughly 72F, winter is 68F. I'm thinking the 120 watt RBI panel will end up being the one I get, even tho the sizes still don't make much sense. The snake will never really be able to get it's entire body under the panel. I would expect the panels to be wider, but everyone keeps saying it's a shipping problem... :/ The more that I thought about it tho, the longer panel will be nice. If I keep it about 6" away from the side of the enclosure, it will cover the water about 8" helping with my humidity (right? xD).

[Wykyd]

Another thing the guy from RBI mentioned was putting a piece of slate to make my "basking spot" since the RHP will heat up the slate.

One other thing I wanted to ask was temp probe placement. I read somewhere that you want to be roughly 6" from the highest basking spot so the snake can't cover the probe. Any tips, tricks to making it almost impossible to cover? I would like to adapt something so it looks like it belongs in the enclosure while still doing it's job.

[pet_snake_78]

There are various ways of doing things but I actually use a combo of lamp dimmer and ranco t stat. The t stat measures the cool end and will shut the unit down if it gets too hot (the dimmer sticks or somehow gets messed with) with the dimmer itself I adjust it a couple of times a year to keep the basking spot just right. It's worked fine for me but my snake room is relatively stable, if you expect wild temperature swings all the time it may not suffice but if it's a basement, I would expect it to be relatively stable.

[Wykyd]

There are various ways of doing things but I actually use a combo of lamp dimmer and ranco t stat. The t stat measures the cool end and will shut the unit down if it gets too hot (the dimmer sticks or somehow gets messed with) with the dimmer itself I adjust it a couple of times a year to keep the basking spot just right. It's worked fine for me but my snake room is relatively stable, if you expect wild temperature swings all the time it may not suffice but if it's a basement, I would expect it to be relatively stable.

I'm using a VE-300X2. It's a pulse style tstat with digital temp settings for day and night. It runs two setups because eventually there will be another on top. I'm actually going to use it til then in my 55g tank setup.

So, I guess it doesn't seem crazy big, I still don't like how it covers over half of the enclosure. Also, do you have to keep the entire RHP 6" from a surface or just the lens face (under the RHP)?

http://puu.sh/pZBd6/dd8c38464e.jpg

[Wykyd]

After searching around, I kinda answered my own question about the placement of the RHP. Still wondering about probe placement.

http://puu.sh/pZJ27/c04674e17f.jpg

[pet_snake_78]

I'm not sure how many inches from the substrate mine is, maybe 8" but there is a hide they will set on top of that puts them at about 5-6" from it, they will use that very occasionally when they want to be extra hot usually when digesting food and even then not often.

[bigsnakegirl785]

I tend to think the 80watt would do the job unless it's a cool room (under 70-75F).

80 watts is not going to heat a 6' enclosure, that's better suited for 4', maybe 5' enclosures. 120 watts is the minimum I'd implement in an enclosure of that size. An 80 watt panel is just going to work too hard, especially during the winter.

I have two 6'x2'x3's, both heated with a 120 watt panel on one end and a 100 watt CHE on the other end. During the summer, I can maintain temps fine. During the night, the temps drop from 88F to 84F and 85F to 80F, unless I used a space heater, which I'm not going to bother with at that temp. During the winter, even with the space heater set to 85F, I'm lucky to get any part of the enclosure near 85F. I think that's mostly because it's 3' tall and the draftiness of the trailer. That said, I don't have as hard of a time heating it here at the trailer as I did at the apartment. I'm actually thinking of either upgrading the panels or switching them out for shorter PVC enclosures (2' rather than 3'), because it's simply too much of a pain as is.

Another thing the guy from RBI mentioned was putting a piece of slate to make my "basking spot" since the RHP will heat up the slate.

One other thing I wanted to ask was temp probe placement. I read somewhere that you want to be roughly 6" from the highest basking spot so the snake can't cover the probe. Any tips, tricks to making it almost impossible to cover? I would like to adapt something so it looks like it belongs in the enclosure while still doing it's job.

In my PVC enclosures, I had basking shelves installed, and attached the probe to the underside of the shelf. Imo, this is the easiest way to both heat the enclosure and keep the probe from getting smushed. If you heat just the top half of the enclosure, your heating element doesn't have to work so hard, and the probe is well out of reach. You just have to do some adjusting with the thermostat settings to get it to the right temp. For example, I have two T12's stacked directly on each other. The bottom one is set to 85F right now to reach 90F on the top since I recently got an A/C unit and had to boost the temps a bit, and the top enclosure is set to 83F to reach 90F on the top half.

That set up allows me a temp range of 80-90F with 80 watt panels (T12's are 4'x2'x2').

[Wykyd]

RBI did recommend I go with their 160 watt panel. It spans roughly 2/3 of the enclosure (which I questioned). If I'm understanding how these work, the RHP only heats directly below itself. In turn objects under the RHP absorb heat and transfer that heat to the air. My main concern is reaching a nice gradient. Here are few orientations I thought of. My favorite is the pushed back into the corner. It allows me to pull my temp probe just through the foam background.

Roughly a 30° angle.
http://puu.sh/pZLRN/66b2f14c93.jpg

Pushed closer to the rear of the enclosure.
http://puu.sh/pZMt5/0888a5e455.jpg

Center left (I just realized I'm placing the RHP on the left and it belongs on the right :3.
http://puu.sh/pZMvd/f3075537b8.jpg

[Ian of Oldham]

looks cool.
2 Royals, 1 Corn 1 Boa and a mad Cat.

[bigsnakegirl785]

I honestly prefer my heat on the left rather than right side (I'm a leftie), but ultimately it doesn't matter which side you put it on.

Of the three orientations you spoke of, I'd probably push it slightly to the back. I'm not sure what angling it will do, and more heat will hit the walls if you push the whole thing back rather than to the side, since more of the heat panel is getting closer to the wall lengthwise than in the width. That said, you're probably not going to have a significant amount of wiggle room. My 120 watts have maybe 4"-5" of clearance on either side from the front and back walls (they're 2' wide), so not sure how much of a difference it would make, especially if the 160 watts is slightly wider (haven't looked).

[Ian of Oldham]

I use heat bulbs in the day with thermoses and ceramics at night. it is much more economic and give the snakes somewhere to bask in the day


2Royal 1 Corn 1 Boa and a mad Cat.

[Wykyd]

I honestly prefer my heat on the left rather than right side (I'm a leftie), but ultimately it doesn't matter which side you put it on.

Of the three orientations you spoke of, I'd probably push it slightly to the back. I'm not sure what angling it will do, and more heat will hit the walls if you push the whole thing back rather than to the side, since more of the heat panel is getting closer to the wall lengthwise than in the width. That said, you're probably not going to have a significant amount of wiggle room. My 120 watts have maybe 4"-5" of clearance on either side from the front and back walls (they're 2' wide), so not sure how much of a difference it would make, especially if the 160 watts is slightly wider (haven't looked).

Putting the heat on the right is just to break the norm. So many enclosures I see have their heat on the left. I mainly think it's because we do everything from left to right so it comes naturally. I like to go against the grain, so right to left it is!

That was my thinking too on the orientation. It allows much easier placement of the probe as well as heating up more objects. As far as the clearance, Bobby told me all that matters is in front of the lens. The panel can be tight against the wall as long as nothing on that wall sticks out less than 6" from the panel lens.

I use heat bulbs in the day with thermoses and ceramics at night. it is much more economic and give the snakes somewhere to bask in the day


2Royal 1 Corn 1 Boa and a mad Cat.

Heat bulbs don't penetrate the way that RHPs or UTH's do, I'd much rather try and mimic the sun as best that I can in the way that it heats, which is infrared. As I said earlier, I will mimic daytime with LED light bar and my computer emits blue lights from it's fans and such which will give that "moon" glow at night.

[Ian of Oldham]

Putting the heat on the right is just to break the norm. So many enclosures I see have their heat on the left. I mainly think it's because we do everything from left to right so it comes naturally. I like to go against the grain, so right to left it is!

That was my thinking too on the orientation. It allows much easier placement of the probe as well as heating up more objects. As far as the clearance, Bobby told me all that matters is in front of the lens. The panel can be tight against the wall as long as nothing on that wall sticks out less than 6" from the panel lens.



Heat bulbs don't penetrate the way that RHPs or UTH's do, I'd much rather try and mimic the sun as best that I can in the way that it heats, which is infrared. As I said earlier, I will mimic daytime with LED light bar and my computer emits blue lights from it's fans and such which will give that "moon" glow at night.


Well I will move in to your Viv ha ha

[Wykyd]

lolz, wait til I finish it, it's going to be a dream enclosure for any boa :P