rope light as heat source?

[Kurzix]

I was looking at the pics in Sophia's gallery where the comment was it was heated entirely by rope light.

How much rope did you need to use, how hot do they get, and do you use a dimmer? Anyone else use rope light for heating...this could kill two stones with one bird!

Jay

[Linds]

Ive never heard of rope lighting being able to sufficiently heat an enclosure. I know several people that use rope lighting to light up the enclsoures, but for asthetic purposes only. I can't see how it work very well, nor could I see how it could create a proper gradient or anything :confused:

[Kurzix]

thats part of my question...but i;ve never dealt with light rope...but the caption on the pic said heated entirely with rope light, and it looked like it was in 2 places in the cage, and doubled up. maybe this stuff gives off some decent heat...

Its why I posted to begin with :)

[sophia]

Well it works wonders believe it or not! In that large cage you see there with the divider in the middle, there are two 18ft strands of rope light and both are in the arena of 65 watts, they are only slightly warm to the touch and keep the enclosure warm, doubling up the strands at the back keeps that area heated to about 85 to 88 degrees when lit and the front with single strands, at a comfortable 79 to 82 degrees. We are very pleased with it and it's indoor/outdoor, so it can take being wet plus it's fused inline and you can connect several, zip ties are a better and cheaper overall method of installation however and note that we did run some of it all the way to the bottom of the cage in one corner and we tested the gradient with a gun type gauge called the 'Tell Temp' put out by Geneva Scientific. We use this gun on all our enclosures daily to check gradient. Another note here is; we have it set up on a strip with a timer, the strip also has a circut breaker just for double security. So far we are VERY pleased with the saftey, efficiency and overall asthetic of the rope lights and will be using them in our next enclosure and soon will be shifting most of them to those lights.

It all depends on how well sealed your enclosure is and how you run the ropes as to what your gradient is in the enclosure. We purchased these at Walmart for $4.50 per set! You can buy them in different colors and wattages at Lowes Home Improvement running anywhere from $6.00 to about $18.00.

Tay

[reverendsterlin]

well this is very handy to know, I may have to consider it on my next project

[sophia]

It is so nice and I worry about it a lot less than heat lamps and cermaic heaters or heat pads, let me tell ya! I checked the heat gradient again after posting, 81 at the front 85 at the rear 82 on the far left side and 84 on the right, I'd say that's pretty good and humidity in the cage holding steady at about 68%...

Tay

[Kurzix]

indeed this could be very usefull info for us all

[Kurzix]

I was looking at a site that used rubberized contact paper to do the insides of his enclosures for his GTP...i think i might use those and the rope lights on my next cage!!

[sophia]

I had thought about the contact paper, you know the backer type??? Let me know if you do this and how it stands up to the humidity because if it does well, it's a lot easier than staining or laminating!!!

I know some are using the rope lights to heat the rubbermaids too and the Boaphile site shows them for asthetic, I can't remember if I asked him about heat or not, but that's where we got the original idea and decided to test it in the enclosure for two days and nights to see what the ranges were and how well they functioned.


Tay

[Kurzix]

well I think it will work great. The site I got the idea from is
http://www.chondroweb.com/fineGTPs/cageplans.htm
and its got plans for building a cage for GTP, which need high humidity. What he does is coats the pieces of wood BEFORE assembly, and then silicones the edges. sounds good to me, and he uses it on his cages...so I thinki will give it a go!

[sophia]

Thank you for that link Kurix and let me know what you think on that contact paper.

Tay

[Linds]

The rope lighting would probably work good for arboreal species - I may keep that in mind when I make an enclosure for Bugs :D, but those temps are a touch low for most boids (msot require a hot spot of 88-90+).............

[Kurzix]

Hey guys what about photoperiods? are ya gunna have no heat when the lights need to be out... might be good for boosting the temp and then having the night time drop tho

[sophia]

Well our enclosure is about 3/4" thick with exception to the pegboard back and the plexi on the front, so the heat stays up in there over night with the lights out, to anywhere from 75 to 79 degrees all night long, we haven't had to add extra heat such as a pad or heat tape. It's really well insulated.

Tay

[Kurzix]

whats your house temp at night? is it also in the 75-79 degree range?

[sophia]

Yep there abouts, but one side note, for a basking spot in the back right hand corner, you can put down a piece of acrylic, or a rubbermaid container over a coil of the lights. My Boa has found her own spot on the perch next to the coil of the lights and it works wonders, the bloods lay in the back corner. With the ball cage, we're going to run thiers a little differently, doubling up on one end and putting in a seperate basking spot on the bottom and when we move Ms. Tia over to the arboreal cage, we're going to run some strands under shelves, I'm using a cheat though. We're buying acrylic cutting boards at Walmart and mounting those to shelving brackets!!! LOL Cheap, warm, asthetically pleasing and effective! <G>

Now in one or two of our cages where the basking spot just isn't warm enough we use heat tape, sometimes you just have to, but the lights keep the enclosures plenty warm enough with a good heat gradient and as insulated as they are by being laminated over 3/4" oak and pine with coats of poly to boot, they stay warm all night, even when the windows are open on a 58 to 60 degree night like last night, they didn't drop below 75 degrees.

You're in Detroit, there should be some supply houses where you can buy used office furniture and store equipment, those are the type display cases we're using and we're buying them for $20.00 a piece and putting about $50 more into each one! So we're getting 5 and 6 foot long by 2 foot deep and 18" to 21" high enclosures for less than $100 plus labor of course.

Tay

[Kurzix]

not too bad. I'll hafta look into that...being I am a mover I'm often offered peoples furniture they don;t want anymore. Of course since I've had snakes I've not been offered anything that would make a good enclosure. I'll have to keep my eyes open :)

[sophia]

Isn't that just the way it always goes, when you need something you never have it, when you need to make money off it you couldn't give it away!!! LOL

Tay

[Tim_Cranwill]

Hey guys, how much does this rope-light stuff cost? It's looks great and I'd love to get some for my Bp display cage.

[sophia]

Well down here it's relatively inexpensive. I buy it at $4.50 per 18 ft at Walmart and then it starts at about $6.50 at Lowes Home Improvement. It's nice.

Tay

[Tim_Cranwill]

Great! I'm sold.