HEATING TIPS ...

These "tips" are the result of 17 years of keeping many Reptiles with many different heating systems and talking with scores of other herpers that have encountered any number of difficulties over the years. Had I known all these things years ago I would have been a happy camper. Much of it is just common sense but all of it was learned after many years of trial and error.

- The number one thing that you need to be aware of is that everyone has a different situation to conquer. Your weather is not the same as the weather that is here in Minnesota. This includes both humidity and temperature. Houses down south are built differently than they are here in the North Woods of Central United States. We all keep different types of critters as well that have widely ranging requirements for temperature, humidity and light cycle. We have specially designed our products to work best for the widest range of users without endangering the lives and well being of the keeper or the kept. Sure we could use higher wattage heaters and or install more of the actual heating materials that would make it possible for someone who is actually trying to properly keep tropical animals in a 60 degree basement, but that system would be far more risky to be used by the vast majority of people who are set up in more average household temperatures. So our challenge is to build products that can meet the vast majority of Herpers needs and provide the formula to help you be successful should you have less than ideal conditions for your charges. This is our purpose in listing all the following hopefully helpful tips:

- Room temperature. Your room temperature is of course highly influential on your ability to heat your cage(s) and or rack(s). Optimal room temperatures should be around 74-78 degrees. If your temps are below these levels and you are heating a single unit you may have to do some additional insulating to maintain the temperatures you need. We can help you do what is necessary to heat your cage and or rack. Multiple cages or racks resting against each other help each other maintain warm enough temperatures. We have installed heating that is adequate to heat cages and racks provided the advice detailed above is followed. We used the lowest wattage heaters necessary to provide adequate heat. This is to provide you the safest possible housing for your reptiles and amphibians without endangering your or your charges. We would rather encourage or help you do the extra little things that must be done to reach the temps that you need without endangering anyone.

- Do not use any more extension cords than is absolutely necessary. Additional cords means additional travel distance and more copper to spread out all the electricity. Too many cords will mean you will loose voltage and your heaters will not work as effectively. Just something else to keep in mind.

- Some thermostats and most rheostats will allow some loss of power. This loss of power may drop your voltage not allowing you to get the full potential from your heaters. If you are having difficulty heating whatever and you are using a rheostat, temporarily try the heater without the rheostat. You may find that the rheostat is the problem.

- No thermostat is full proof. Thermostats can sometimes stick in the full on position. Occasionally they will stick off and sometime just don't all all the juice to flow through correctly. A good rule of thumb is in most things in life you get what you pay for. Cheap often is just that and not much more. The same as with your rheostat, you can double check the efficacy of your thermostat allowing the electricity to flow by temporarily disconnecting it.

- Do not set up a cage or rack on an exterior wall. Your home will loose most of its heat out the walls and ceiling. Typically during the colder months there is an ever present draft falling down your walls like a cool air waterfall. This is just due to warm air rising and cooler air sinking. This typically takes place walls. The exterior walls are much cooler and draftier than are your interior walls. Windows of course are even worse. So whenever possible set up cages/racks against interior walls. Resting your cage or rack against interior walls will help maintain warmer temperatures. The wall will act as an insulator.

- Whenever possible do not rest a rack or cage directly on the floor: Your floor is where all the airflow drops down to. That is all the cooler air running down your walls flows onto the floor. This is a poor place to rest a cage unless you have made additional adjustments to provide more heat for those cages that rest directly on the floor. Cages that are elevated just 12" off the floor will be much easier for you to heat that cages that are directly on the floor. In many cases racks especially larger "Blanket Box" racks must rest on the floor. In this case be aware that we have configured the heaters in the rack to send the maximum heat to that bottom space. This will still not heat as well as the third or fourth drawer up though and would be a good choice for males that might typically be kept at cooler temperatures or for those more cool tolerant species.

- Do not run a fan in your reptile cage area. You may have difficulty maintaining the sort of temps you need if you are running a fan in the area of a cage or rack as this will blow away all the heat that is trying to build up inside that cage or rack. If your room is relatively warm, 74 degrees or warmer then that is a different story all together. For folks that are trying to keep a small number of cages in a standard room temperature a fan can be another source of your problem heating adequately.