Winter Heating in Large Enclosures

[bigsnakegirl785]

Ok, so it's starting to cool off where I live now. It's getting into the high-40's (Fahrenheit) at night, and barely breaks into the 70's during the day (there's a few days this week that are supposed reach the mid-70s, though). So, it's becoming a little harder to heat Cloud and Bud's enclosures. They are custom-built wooden enclosures measuring 6ft long, 2ft wide, and 3ft tall. They are being heated with RHPs, which keeps the ambient air temps at 85F (86F in Cloud's), a hot spot of 90F, and a cool side of 75F. They stay at slightly cooler temps nowadays, if I keep my door and windows closed at all times. I have closed the storm windows, but it hasn't really helped. So, it's 85-86F in both cages. If I open my door, it very quickly drops to 75F. They have tempered glass doors, so I was thinking of buying some window insulation film to put on them.

I have tried putting UTHs under them, but they just won't stick. I tried duct tape, electrical tape, and the sticky side of the UTH. None of those methods worked, and the UTH quickly just peeled off and fell to the floor. My dad is unconvinced of the importance of maintaining these temperatures, so I'm having a hard getting any major changes done on the cage. He's absolutely convinced they will be fine at 65-70F constantly, so I can only do basic changes to it as I have no experience at building anything, except while we worked on these cages. They don't have insulation in the sides, despite me being adamant on the subject, because my dad was so sure that the cages wouldn't need it. That was before I had the funds to help pay for all of the materials (I bought everything but the RHPs and the glass doors), so I had to go with it. No amount of care sheets, or other people's projects will convince him. Now I can buy the insulation, but I need my fathers help to remove them from the legs and take off the outside boards to install them.

He also won't let me buy a heater for my room. We have a wood stove in the living room, right outside my room, but last year my room never got above 65F even with it completely filled with wood and a fan blowing hot air into my room. It was usually around 55-60F. Of course, they were in smaller enclosures then, so it wasn't a problem. So, I was wondering if having the film on the doors and a UTH would be enough to heat them? Any ideas on getting the UTH to stick to the underside of the cage?

I am using probes hooked up to the thermostats to gauge hot end temps, and regular thermometers on the cool ends. The kind that you use to take the air temp of houses with. I am looking in to getting a probe digital thermometer, but I'm not sure which brand to use, and I'll be getting a temp gun as well. The probe is 4in off of the bedding, so about 6in off the bottom of the cages. The hygrometer I bought says it also reads temps, but the directions said nothing of the sort, and I don't see them on the actual screen. It's ExoTerra.