Space Heater Needed/Which Temp To Use?

[Oni5000]

I was just checking the min/max on my accurite the other day and found that the ambient temps in my room go from 79->71 F. Unfortunately, my room is in the basement and is big. I live in a small house with 3 other people, so giving my snakes a room to themselves isn't possible right now.

The room itself is about 15X20. Will a 1500w oil filled heater be enough to warm this room? Can I trust the thermostat on it or should I get a seperate one? I've seen the ones at canadian tire that are meant to work with 120v for baseboard heaters. These can be used with oil filled heaters correct?

Also, a quick hotspot question. I've got my thermostat probe and temp probe together on the actual sterilite bin over the hotspot. With my tempgun, if I move the newspaper and read the actual bin surface, I get 92-94. With 2 layers of newspaper on top, I get 87-89. I'm guessing this is just because i'm not holding the newspaper down when I do the reading and its registering the air gap between the paper and the bin. With 2-3 layers of newspaper, should I go with the bin temp when setting up my hotspot?

[Oni5000]

Anyone? I could really use advice on this one...

[peterm15]

i cant help much but i can say that i got a osilating fan 120v with a range of 500-1500w heater from walmart for 30 bucks and ive never been happier.... it helps keeps my cham cage at 80-80 and dropa to 72-76 durong the night its perfect... my room prob sat at around 60 so it was really cold.......... it is 10 x 12 and on 1000 watts i have no prob heating it.... and keeping the room at a steady temp all day can be done on 500 w...... i dont know what these oil heaters are like so i cant help you there.....

and no dont trust the thermostat.... i keep mine cool for now so im not in a huge rush to change it... but i check it every hour.... so... you should really hook it up to a realiable thermostat..... sorry i couldnt help you more

[Piers]

I use two heat sources. the first ist the rooms baseboard heater that is set for the ntl and a oil filled heater that I turn on every morning for the dth. I also use a fan to even out the room temps.
I used to have a four temp set thermostat system that Roy Stockwell built way way back in the day but it finally burnt out this summer.
The settings on the oil filled heaters are adequate but not great.
Piers

[Oni5000]

I got a 1500W oil filled heater. It's doing a great job so far on the 900w setting. My temps in the rack are now a nice gradient between 83-93, and I actually see a few of them on the cool side now even during the day. Now to see if it's made any difference in their feeding response.