Heat tape and rack

[Wizwise2000]

Hello Everyone,

I'm going to be building a ball python rack in the near future, and I'm intending on wiring all the heat tape to one plug.

I was also going to put heat tape along the front of the rack for the cool side. My house is cold and of course I need to keep the cool side in the 70's.

So what would happen is the cool side heat tapes would be plugged into a thermostat, and the warm side tapes would be plugged into another thermostat.

What do you all think? Good/bad idea?

Thank you,
Shane

[Jeff_Favelle]

I think its a bad idea to keep the cool end in the low 70's for one. A very bad idea.

Do you know the temp gradient for Ball Pythons?

[mykee]

I agree, I would work on getting the temp up in the room a la space heater or something, then worry about heating up the warm end with heat tape. Good luck.

[Wizwise2000]

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53753

That is a thread where I was told 75 degrees is fine. I was trying to keep it at 80, yes I'm aware what the temps should be, I'm paranoid and try to make sure everything is perfect:)

The problem is I can't keep the room temp up. I haven't used a forced air fan like Roy had suggested in that same thread above. I've been using an oil heater, which has done great, until it got cold out:)

It's a good size room, and we heat with wood stoves and an oil furnace. I had thought that if I kept the room at around 65-70, then heat the cool side of the rack to 80, and the warm side to 92-95 it would be fine.

I'm completely out of ideas on heating the room. I just can't do
it:( Maybe if I section the room in half.

Thanks,
Shane

[Jeff_Favelle]

Better insulation, less ventilation, etc etc.... There's lots of ways other than heating the room up to raise the cool end of the rack.

[mykee]

Shane, I re-read the thread, and maybe you either misunderstood or (my) posts on the topic were ambiguous. In that thread I mentioned that the room temps of 70-75 was ok. Which is true. With a "base" of 70 or so in the room, the ambient heat provided by the heat source that you are using to heat up your enclosure will bring the cooler side up from your "base" of 70 (assuming we're not talking about breeding season, when you would want an ambient room temp of 70 or so, and by turning off the heat source at night, you could maintain that temp easily). FOr the rest of the year though, with your heat source on 24 hrs/day, the room temp plus the heat source will raise your cool side to the desired (and needed) temps. Hope that didn't confuse you any more. I'm definitely more confused now...

[Wizwise2000]

Ok, I completely understand now. Yes, I totally misunderstood the post...Now that I re-read it, I don't see how I misunderstood it.

Ok, well I suppose my idea was a bad one then. So I'll section the room in half and try and keep the room temp up. Right now I can maintain the room temp at 75. But we don't have -20 weather yet:) I'd like to know I can keep the room where they will be happy and not try and fix the problem when it happens.

Thanks,
Shane