Heat Emitters are the best :-))

[Pogie]

Hi everyone, been fairly inactive the past 3 days. My husband had an accident with his bike on Monday night, so have been busy with all the legal/insurance rig marole....

Anyways, I think I have suceeded in getting Pogies viv night time temps better.

Geez... I've had a hell of a time battling to get it right. When I got her, the viv already had a 15W heat pad in it. Thought it would keep night time temps on cold days/winter at at least 20C / 68F.

Gosh . . . was I wrong.... Its only autumn now and with the pad it still dropped to 15C / 59F. Then I bought a bigger heat pad 25W... Hmmmmm waste of money, the only thing that changed was the expression on my face.

Everyone here said that heat emitters BURN the vivs . . . so I was scared to get one. But two nights ago when the viv temp dropped to 13C / 55F I decided bugger this I'll get it and test it during the day in my small 20 gallon spare viv. Got nice and toasty in there. So I removed the heat pad and started installing the emitter...

Had it on last night and her viv temps were 28C / 82F this morning just before her lights came on . . . SUCCESS ! ! ! ! !

Measured the temp with the probe about 35cm from emitter.

Best buy I've ever made, even it was damn expensive

 

[egg 80]

i use ceramic heat emitters for my night time temps never had a prob with them burning the viv if you use a good enought heat sheild you wont have a problem

paul

 

[Pogie]

What heat shield????

 

[zebraflavencs]

This, Monique:
http://www.herpshop.com.au/
Hope that helps.
Janie

 

[Pogie]

OK, ok, I am experiencing an extreme blonde moment here.....

Are you talking about this . . .

Or this....

My setup is like this . . . She cant get to the emitter as it is more than 8" away from closest surface

I was scared it would burn the viv its self like the roof/walls etc.....

 

[renich]

I love heat emitters. I've used it during cold winter months. Keep in mind that night temps can drop to 65F.

 

[Pogie]

Yeah, I know, but the house temps are still fair... about 13C / 55.4F at night and with the emitter the viv is 28C / 82F
So I guess when its the dead of winter and the house temps drops to the usual 2C / 35F the viv should JUST be 17-20C / 62 - 68F

I HOPE

 

[egg 80]

no the hear sheild is a metal plate you put behind the ceramic heat emitter to stop the heat hitting the top and sides also helps and direct heat away you need to put a guard around it also you really dont want your beardie to catch itself on that

paul

 

[zebraflavencs]

You wrote shield, I saw Cage. Sorry.
Janie

 

[egg 80]

sheild=cage cage=sheild hummmm lol here are my glasses you wanna borrow them \O-O/
lol

paul

 

[Pogie]

OK, but I've had it on for 2 nights now . . no visible damage to the roof of the viv, There is a type of reflector/shield under the UV tube as you can see on the top / left of the pic below.

Also the basking light emits a lot more heat, if I feel the roof during the day vs in the morning with the emitter on from 8PM - 6AM. But will monitor daily and hope it doesnt do damage. I dont even have a clue where to begin to look for the stuff you guys mentioned here is our part of the country... We have NOTHING, and what you can get is really expensive.

And there is NO RISK of her getting to the emitter, it is too high, the only one constantly getting burned is ME, when getting her bedtime blankie ready or cleaning the viv LOL

Also moved the probe to measure the diff temps in diff parts of the viv.

The 1st Night it was just to the right of the emitter on the platform floor and got 28C / 82F reading the next morning just before the lights came on.
Last night I put it at the back of the basking platform, she kinda lay on it so dont know how accurate the reading is, but got 26.2C / 79.16F this morning.

A Huge improvement from the heat pads 15C / 59F . . .

 

[renich]

Excellent!

 

[Pogie]

OK, so the house temps dont go below 60 anymore - ITS SPRING TIME

I have scaled down the hours that the CHE is on at night from 10 (dead of winter) to 8 to 6 and now 2 hours per night.
Do you think its safe to switch it off completely now or is 60 still too low ?

 

[renich]

Personally, I don't like night temps to fall below 65F.

 

[Pogie]

OK, then it can stay on still for a bit. The night temps in the house (not the viv) for the past 3 days have been 62.06F / 16.7C at the coldest.

By mid day the house temps hits the 81F mark and by 4PM its at 84/89F

 

[Red Ink AUS]

OK, then it can stay on still for a bit. The night temps in the house (not the viv) for the past 3 days have been 62.06F / 16.7C at the coldest.

By mid day the house temps hits the 81F mark and by 4PM its at 84/89F

Wire the CHE into a wall mounted thermostat Monique, perfect peice of mind. I don't know how to run an enclosure without them. I set all my thermostats for the diurnal lizards at 18c and forget about them. I have not touched the CHE in the BD enclosure for 3 years lol.

The thermostats are the small boxes on the wall.

 

[Pogie]

Hmmmmm thanx Francis, Will look into that. Never seen them here before.
At the moment my day setup is on 1 timer 06H00 - 20H00 and then the CHE is on a seperate timer, presently on from 02H00 - 04H00 then it switches off so it can cool down by the time the lights come on again @6 AM. The temp in the VIV is then 21C / 69F

 

[Pogie]

I stil love CHE's