Combo lights -- any downside?

[Gizmo]

Those ESU combination light fixtures that hold a flourescent tube and a couple of incandescent bulbs sure seem like a nice way to reduce the "stuff" on the top of the cage and also make the heat source more secure. I've searched past forum threads and found that at least a couple of people here were planning to use those fixtures. My question is whether the socket arrangement in the combo hood can in fact supply the necessary heat for panthers safely. The sockets are arranged so that the bulbs sit parallel to the cage floor. As I understand it, most heat bulbs send a concentrated beam out the "end" of the bulb, and that would be lost in this set up. I just use 60W household bulbs so maybe that doesn't matter. However, my guess is that the combo hood still requires a higher wattage bulb to generate the same heat as the specially designed little domes we all use. And the hood sits right atop the frame of the cage...
Bottom idea is I like the idea of the combo hood if in fact it works for the chameleon. Any wisdom from my experienced friends? Thanks!

 

[roo_71]

It’s not exactly proven but a lot of keepers (including myself) subscribe to the theory that chams regulate UV just like they do with heat. So with those combo fixtures, if the cham wants heat and no UV (or vise versa) then that isn’t really possible since both are in the same light fixture. So ideally, the heat and UV source should be separate from one another - enough so that the cham can choose what it wants without being exposed to the other – whether it be heat or UV.

-roo

 

[Jordan]

I have used one in the past but it was over an aquarium. Not sure as to the effectiveness using in an open air type enclosure. Worst case scenario I guess I could see the ambient temperature suffering and this could be dramatic depending on what your house thermostat is set on. The dome reflect generates so much heat. It also does such a good job of spreading it out in the enclosure. Even with lower wattage bulbs it spreads it out to the effectiveness of two or three I would suspect.

Not saying it is not worth a try but maybe trying to find a cheap start one to test it out with. I bought mine form a reptile shop on a open box basis. It was used by them for awhile and sold under half price. If your lucky or by checking through classified maybe you can find a deal there. It would just kind of suck to pay as much as some of those things cost and find out it could not do the job. Some I have seen with the bulbs sideways. The one I had both of the bulbs pointed down normal.

Honestly I kind of constructed a little frame thingy that supported all of my lights. I use reptariums and they shift bad if you do not do something about it.

 

[Brian S]

I believe that the incandescent lights were metal halide. I don't believe they will produce enough heat nor UVB for your cham. I too have used this type of fixture on aquariums and i think they are great for propogation of corals, i don't know about chams. Maybe if you can find a heat metal halide bulb it would work.

Look here

 

[cam98]

I have one of those lights they work pretty well they dont overheat the cage at all i havn't had any trouble with them I have just uv lights in mine 2 100watt zoomed blue daylight bulbs and a 15 inch reptisun 5.0 it works well

 

[hybrid]

I got a couple of the zoomed reptisun10.0 bulbs and a couple standard "grow bulbs" and then some 60 watt halogen conversion bulbs.

My halogen conversion bulbs are for heat......they are on a timer and come on and off with 14 hour cycles......to keep the heat progressively moving up and down.

The grow bulbs and the reptisun bulbs are in white flourescnet fixtures and I manually turn them on and off on a 12-13 hour cycle.

If you look at my thread on my cage building youll see that I dont have too much going on above the cage. The flourescent fixture hides all my other problems.

Oh and total cost for my setup (minus my choices in bulbs) 100 dollars for 6 fixtures and a timer.