Heat bulb alternatives

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M

Mike D

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 25, 2007
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Spencer,Ma
Morning everyone!

Most of you may not know me but I was a frequent poster a while back and life got hectic and I stopped. Wondering if you will all let me pick at your brains for a while.

I am in the process of building a new enclosure for my male iguana I have the cage framed and wrapped in plywood just need to seal the seams and add paint. I have plans for everything except heat. Ive always used flood lights to provide my heat, they are cheap, easy to come by and do a fair job. For this build I was planning on using ceramic heat emitters probably 2 low watt ones. But now I am not sure, see paragraph below.

Last night I was browsing some sites looking at emitter prices and came across radiant heat panels. I like the concept of using the panel over a light bulb for various reasons; clean looking install is one of the top reasons. But can these be used with iguanas? I know snake people love them and rave about them. But I've found very little info about using them with lizards(do they not get warm enough?)

If anyone has experience/information on these I would love to discuss them with you. Or if you have other suggestions please toss them out as I would like to research all angles. Any and all info is appreciated.

Have a wonderful day

Mike D
 
Hey man, I have an iguana also and will be upgrading its enclosure soon, when it comes to reptiles its always DIY and the hardware store has everything at cheaper prices. I always use floodlights too for obvious reasons. Recently these panels have popped up @ local reptile shows and they aren't that hot to the touch and for a giant/tall enclose that needs decent ventilation I don't see the cost being realistic but they are nifty!

I was considering using a regular space heater that mounts out of the cage possibly with an aluminum duct and a screen, running it on my heater controller, some of them move decent air and you can always use 2 and have the normal basking setup using a lower wattage bulb. 1 of them easily heats my bedroom so I would think putting it on a lower setting would easily keep up with proper ambient temps.

Just an idea as I've been contemplating the solution to this for awhile.


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The only thing about the space heater is that the heat will be a very dry heat so extra care would need to be taken to make sure that the humidity stays in range. And you would need fans to move the heat down ducting and into the cage. It would also make he whole cage the same temp I would assume. And space heaters tend to use a lot of power to produce the heat. I like the idea but feel it may be more suited to desert dwelling species. Again not sure if all of those reasons are true but from running them in my house I noticed it get real dry.
 
Hi Mike,
Im using radiant heat panels and halogen outdoor flood bulbs in my croc monitors cage at the moment.
The ONLY problem I have found with RHP's and larger lizards like monitors and iguanas, is the panels dont produce enough heat to get the high basking temps that these lizards require.
As far as creating ambient heat or heating up certain areas of your cage, the panels are pretty tough to beat.
If you have any questions about the panels let me know, ive been using pro-product panels for about 10 years now.
 
Edwardo said:
Hi Mike,
Im using radiant heat panels and halogen outdoor flood bulbs in my croc monitors cage at the moment.
The ONLY problem I have found with RHP's and larger lizards like monitors and iguanas, is the panels dont produce enough heat to get the high basking temps that these lizards require.
As far as creating ambient heat or heating up certain areas of your cage, the panels are pretty tough to beat.
If you have any questions about the panels let me know, ive been using pro-product panels for about 10 years now.
Click to expand...

Damn I was hoping they would work well for his basking spot. I was hoping to be able to mount it to the top and not sacrifice vertical space. That's one thing I hate about hologen floods and ceramic emitters, once you add the bulb and fixture you loose a good 8-10 inches right off the bat, not to mention the distance the bulbs need to be from the animal to make sure they don't burn themselves. Not to mention they don't look that great hanging from the ceiling of the enclosure(in my opinion). The enclosure is also plywood with just sliding glass doors in the front so I'm hoping it holds heat well.

Was hoping to run a single panel above the basking area and be done with it. His enclosure will be in a separate room from the rest of the house with my redfoot tortoises and the room is going to be kept with a low of 68degrees. I still need to look into it more. I like what I am reading about them and humidity(how it's easier to maintain it). In my experience halogen floods and ceramic emitters tend to really kill humidity in enclosures. But if I can't use the heat panel for basking I will skip it all together, they aren't super cheap so using for just ambient heat is out of the question, especially when I could add another bulb on the opposite side of the cage to raise the temp at a fraction of the cost.

The hunt continues!
 
You could probably get away with just the panel if your ambient room temps were much higher, and you got your iggy within an inch or two of the panel.
Ive had some lizards basking within inches of RHP's on branches, and the basking spot temps were just okay at best. It works, but I wouldnt say well, this was also in an average 68 deg room, you more then likely will end up with a sub optimal basking spot.
If it were a snake you were keeping, you would be able to get away with one heat panel of the correct wattage to do the whole cage covering both basking and ambient temps, most snakes dont require the higher basking temps that iggys and monitors do.
If you find something that creates a better basking spot then halogen/incandescent flood bulbs,
let me know. Bob
 
For a traditional basking spot that doesn't take up a lot of vertical space, look into xenon puck lights. They're only 2" or so tall and a trio arranged together would make a reasonably large basking spot. I single puck lights for basking spots in snake enclosures.

For a non-traditional approach, you could install a tube-style uvb bulb above the basking spot but use a pig blanket to supply heat. Pads like the ones made by Kane and Osborne heat up to 20-30 degrees F above ambient, depending on how you have the controller set. (http://www.kanemfg.com/ , http://www.osbornepetsupply.com/heat-pads/ )
 
Mike D said:
Also what temps are you able to achieve with just the heat panel? Would it be able to achieve mid 90s?
Click to expand...

Maybe, it depends alot on the temps around the panel, room and cage temp come into play.

I dont remember exact temp numbers, it was years ago, but my lizards were spending to much time directly under the panel, which is telling me the basking spot is not hot enough.
 
Chairman- I will look into the puck lights and see if they will work do my application. They sound interesting.

Edwardo- even when the temps under my iguanas basking spot is right on the money he doesn't move from it unless he is eating or going to the bathroom. Iguanas in general tend to just bask all day long. He always have. I still like the idea of them and want to try and get it to work. I just like the idea of a nice clean install with no risk of him burning himself, he's never done that but he has always had a heat light outside of his enclosure and this one is closed in completely to help hold in heat.

Thanks again all this is helping me work through this.
 
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