to switch on or switch off

[killaclown]

Does a uth work with news paper? Or will it catch on fire?

[RepTylE]

well paper burns at approx. 451 degrees F so you can do the math

[Linds]

Your UTH should NEVER be allowed to get that hot. If it is hot enough to burn any paper, melt plastic, etc., it WILL burn your herp! You need to control it with a dimmer or thermostat... UTH do get too hot for herps!

[killaclown]

I got a dimer and every thing on it but i heard so many hore stories about peoples herps getting mest up partly due to the substrate.

[Lisa]

I don't beleive a UTH can get hot to put out 451oF, but you can figure out how much heat they can by doing the math of how many watts the UTH uses. I've forgotten the formula, it was in my high school physics and i paid less attention then I should have.

I found a neat little conversion thingy on the web and i'm not sure if it's giving me the information i want but basicly it says your 16 watt UTH (such as the 10.5X11" exoterra UTH) puts out 54.6 BTU (I could be totaly wrong on this, it's been a while since i've had to think about this stuff and back then i didn't want to think about it). now i'm not sure how much temperature that will put out as i think that's variable on where you're starting at, but i'm sure some one with good physics skills can figure it out.

[sapphire_moon]

I use newspaper over my uth's........

[mykee]

I use heat tape, at a constant 94 degrees, which is pretty warm. I also use unprint newspaper as a substrate. With responsible temps, you have no fear of anything catching fire.

[Linds]

There shouldn't be any concern, since if you are using your UTH to heat snakes, it will be less than the human body temperature. Substrate really isn't an issue as it doesn't intensify heat... however it may reduce the heat from UTH to surface depending on thickness.

[killaclown]

I see i think my uth is 6 wats i got 2 layers of paper over it. He looks pretty cool in there now. Thanks for the help.