Need help with thermostat

[OZZYMAN]

Hello everyone. I just got my first bearded dragon 2 days ago. He has acclimated well and everything is going great so far. However, I'm trying to figure out what the best all around thermostat and timer would be for him. I live in the mountains, so it's not terribly hot during the summer, but I leave for work at about 4AM. I'm trying to find a thermostat that has a timer built in, so I have peace of mind knowing that it will turn his UVB and basking lights on after I'm long gone. I usually work about 9-10 hour days, but can be gone for up to 15 or 16 hours so I don't want to just leave the lights on the whole time. I'm looking at the different options for thermostats, but I'm getting confused because the say day mode or night mode, they don't actually specify a timer. For instance, I'm looking at the exo terra 600w and the zoo med environmental control center, and I downloaded instructions to see how programming works, but I can't get a straight answer. I have the zoo med 40 gal combo, I already trashed the red bulb, and I'm using the 160w mercury bulb in the mean time until my new basking spots and UVB light bar comes in. Is what I'm asking for something that actually exists?? I basically want to set it up for a basking spot, to turn on at about 6AM, but also dim so it maintains the correct temp, and turn off after 12 hours. The thermostat for that gives me peace of mind because even though I'm in the mountains, the ambient temp of my house can raise throughout the day. I plan on setting up the UVB for the same hours. Any thoughts??? So far with the 160w mercury his basking spot is steady at 104*F, and his cool side is between 80-86 throughout the day. I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can for him cause my days can sometimes be hectic. Thanks in advance!

 

[Sadie]

Hello everyone. I just got my first bearded dragon 2 days ago. He has acclimated well and everything is going great so far. However, I'm trying to figure out what the best all around thermostat and timer would be for him. I live in the mountains, so it's not terribly hot during the summer, but I leave for work at about 4AM. I'm trying to find a thermostat that has a timer built in, so I have peace of mind knowing that it will turn his UVB and basking lights on after I'm long gone. I usually work about 9-10 hour days, but can be gone for up to 15 or 16 hours so I don't want to just leave the lights on the whole time. I'm looking at the different options for thermostats, but I'm getting confused because the say day mode or night mode, they don't actually specify a timer. For instance, I'm looking at the exo terra 600w and the zoo med environmental control center, and I downloaded instructions to see how programming works, but I can't get a straight answer. I have the zoo med 40 gal combo, I already trashed the red bulb, and I'm using the 160w mercury bulb in the mean time until my new basking spots and UVB light bar comes in. Is what I'm asking for something that actually exists?? I basically want to set it up for a basking spot, to turn on at about 6AM, but also dim so it maintains the correct temp, and turn off after 12 hours. The thermostat for that gives me peace of mind because even though I'm in the mountains, the ambient temp of my house can raise throughout the day. I plan on setting up the UVB for the same hours. Any thoughts??? So far with the 160w mercury his basking spot is steady at 104*F, and his cool side is between 80-86 throughout the day. I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can for him cause my days can sometimes be hectic. Thanks in advance!

I am not savy w/ the thermostats but I have some one who is and can help - I will post your thread to him

 

[Sadie]

Heres some info for you
The key is to use a dimmable setting on the thermostat when using it with a basking light since the on/off or pulse type of thermostats will cause flickering. Those are best reserved for using with a heat projector/ceramic heat emitter to turn on for overnight heat.
The mercury vapor bulb is not dimmable, so that will need to be raised further away from the basking site to lower the temperature, unfortunately that will also reduce the effective UVB available - that's the downside of those bulbs. A fluorescent tube UVB (it sounds like they're getting one of these) also doesn't dim, but it can be connected to a mechanical outlet timer to just flip on and off per schedule. Then I would use either an incandescent or a halogen bulb to produce light and heat. These can usually be dimmed, though you want to get a wattage and set the distance so that the temps are pretty close to what is needed so the dimming is kept to a minimum.
I've used a herpstat 2 before and it has outlets that can be programmed to either dim or be on/off. A schedule can be set and it has a ramping feature that can slowly bring the light on and slowly turn it off so that it acts a little more like sunlight. It looks like the zoomed environmental control center can do similar but has some extra outlets that handle humidifiers as well. Might be more features than needed in this setup. The Exo Terra is probably a bit closer to the herpstat I used and it has dimming or on/off (pulse proportional) settings. The day and night settings are just a way to control the outputs. For example, with mine I set the day temp to the basking temperature and the night temp to something really low so it wouldn't come on at night at all. The second outlet controlled a heat projector that was set to something really low in the day so it didn't come on but then set to around 68f at night so that on really cold nights it would turn the heat bulb on and keep the enclosure warm. The day/night schedule can be adjusted to follow seasons too, which can be nice. I imagine that the zoomed and exo terra work in a similar way to that.