Heat emitter

RikkiL

Established Member
Question on heat emitters, I am getting ready to finish Wall-e's big cage and I'm curious if anyone uses heat emitters to help with temptrures in the enclosures? Yes I have a heat bulb but it shuts off at 3pm his cage does not always get warm enough according to all the things I have read but he does not always love it hot in his home either. His current home is a 2x2x4 new home is almost 5 feet wide, 2 feet deep and 5 fit tall. We already cook our self out of the house to keep it warm in his cage except for at night.
 
I agree with Klyde on the over all cage temp. I would setup a cage that size like a free range. Use a mercury bulb. Adjust the height for temp and uvb output at the basking spot and all will be good.
 
Question on heat emitters, I am getting ready to finish Wall-e's big cage and I'm curious if anyone uses heat emitters to help with temptrures in the enclosures? Yes I have a heat bulb but it shuts off at 3pm his cage does not always get warm enough according to all the things I have read but he does not always love it hot in his home either. His current home is a 2x2x4 new home is almost 5 feet wide, 2 feet deep and 5 fit tall. We already cook our self out of the house to keep it warm in his cage except for at night.
I use a 100 watt ceramic heat emitter with a jumpstart thermostat and it’s been working amazing! I’ve heard ceramic heat emitters can get too hot without a dimmer or thermostat so I wouldn’t recommend getting one without a way to control the temperature. The jumpstart has been so great, you can set it at any temp. Snake discovery has a video on how to set it up, it was super helpful when I was setting mine up.

Btw if you are going to attach the probe to your chams basking branch just make sure you set the temp a few degrees lower. Your chams cask is closer to the heat emitter and it will be a few degrees hotter. I have mine set at 77 and his cask area reaches the perfect 80-83 degrees.
 
My panther enclosure is 48 x 24 x 48. I use a 48" linear T5 UVB across the top, with a 75W halogen flood (never a spot) for basking, and two 70W Sansi plant lights.

Chameleons (and some other basking reptiles) will try to bask under the brightest light—rather than the warmest. For that reason—and to provide a basking gradient—I angle/aim the basking light to shine on the basking perch directly beneath the plant lights.

1647100565750.png

Everyone's (chameleon & plants) happy.
 
I use a 100 watt ceramic heat emitter with a jumpstart thermostat and it’s been working amazing! I’ve heard ceramic heat emitters can get too hot without a dimmer or thermostat so I wouldn’t recommend getting one without a way to control the temperature. The jumpstart has been so great, you can set it at any temp. Snake discovery has a video on how to set it up, it was super helpful when I was setting mine up.

Btw if you are going to attach the probe to your chams basking branch just make sure you set the temp a few degrees lower. Your chams cask is closer to the heat emitter and it will be a few degrees hotter. I have mine set at 77 and his cask area reaches the perfect 80-83 degrees.
Thank you thats exactly what I needed to hear. My house is so hot trying to keep him at the proper temps all day long.
 
My panther enclosure is 48 x 24 x 48. I use a 48" linear T5 UVB across the top, with a 75W halogen flood (never a spot) for basking, and two 70W Sansi plant lights.

Chameleons (and some other basking reptiles) will try to bask under the brightest light—rather than the warmest. For that reason—and to provide a basking gradient—I angle/aim the basking light to shine on the basking perch directly beneath the plant lights.


Everyone's (chameleon & plants) happy.
Love the pic much needed. I am not sure how everything is going to fit together on top of this new home cause I have a 4ft t5 fixture with 4 bulbs. Also not sure how many uvb bulbs vs normal t5 bulbs or plant lights to get. I'm thinking 2 uvb and 2 norms for the plants.
 
Love the pic much needed. I am not sure how everything is going to fit together on top of this new home cause I have a 4ft t5 fixture with 4 bulbs. Also not sure how many uvb bulbs vs normal t5 bulbs or plant lights to get. I'm thinking 2 uvb and 2 norms for the plants.
One should be all that's needed, however if the fixture does not have a mirror-like reflector such as those supplied with Reptisun or Shenzen fixtures, it won't increase the range, nor will adding additional bulbs. Additional bulbs may increase the strength of the UVB, but an increase in range will be minimal. This is why I generally recommend a single T5 UVB tube in a Shenzen style fixture, and stronger LED lights (e.g. Sansi 70W) for plant lights.

If you want to use that quad fixture, I would still use only one UVB (you will need to decrease the distance from bulb to basking perch) and the rest plant lights (but with that size enclosure, additional plant lights will likely be needed).
 
One should be all that's needed, however if the fixture does not have a mirror-like reflector such as those supplied with Reptisun or Shenzen fixtures, it won't increase the range, nor will adding additional bulbs. Additional bulbs may increase the strength of the UVB, but an increase in range will be minimal. This is why I generally recommend a single T5 UVB tube in a Shenzen style fixture, and stronger LED lights (e.g. Sansi 70W) for plant lights.

If you want to use that quad fixture, I would still use only one UVB (you will need to decrease the distance from bulb to basking perch) and the rest plant lights (but with that size enclosure, additional plant lights will likely be needed).
Thank you
 
Thank you thats exactly what I needed to hear. My house is so hot trying to keep him at the proper temps all day long.
Yes! It’s amazing for keeping the temp low because it will turn off/stop heating up once it reaches the set temperature :) I also recommend getting a temperature gun if you don’t already have one, the one recommended in the Snake Discovery video is amazing. It’s about $30 but 100% worth it.
 
Yes! It’s amazing for keeping the temp low because it will turn off/stop heating up once it reaches the set temperature :) I also recommend getting a temperature gun if you don’t already have one, the one recommended in the Snake Discovery video is amazing. It’s about $30 but 100% worth it.
Is that the Etekcity 774? I agree they're handy—best used in conjunction with digital hygrometers/thermometers with probes.

Also perhaps worth mentioning...
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/enclosure-review.186439/#post-1722094

Thank you thats exactly what I needed to hear. My house is so hot trying to keep him at the proper temps all day long.
Will the new enclosure be a hybrid? They're much easier to control both RH & temps in without so severely affecting your household climate.
 
Is that the Etekcity 774? I agree they're handy—best used in conjunction with digital hygrometers/thermometers with probes.

Also perhaps worth mentioning...
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/enclosure-review.186439/#post-1722094


Will the new enclosure be a hybrid? They're much easier to control both RH & temps in without so severely affecting your household climate.
Yes I totally agree! :) The thermostat I use has a probe and I have another/different digital thermometer similar to the one you linked also set up in the basking area! Thank you for the links, I definitely think the temp gun should not be used as the sole way to measure how hot it is in the enclosure, when I use the gun its alongside other tools. They're usually in the same range for me.
 
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