Heating Problems...Tips?

[Gregorjr]

I have a 2.5 year old male Veiled. I live in Colorado; NO HUMIDITY and cold winters. Adam has his own room, which I heat with a oil space heater and humidify with a cool mist humidifier and routine spraying. Given that the space heater is on the floor, I sometimes have problems with keeping the top of room hot and the bottom cool. Currently I have a fan lightly blowing across the bottom of his tank to keep it below 75F and it seems to be doing the trick. I'd like to avoid the added noise of the fan. Does any one have any advice.

 

[xanthoman]

oil fired space heater?

by "oil fired space heater", i hope you dont mean like a kero-sun or equivalent , such a heater would both use oxygen, and emit carbon monoxide. years ago, i used one to heat a living room for a winter and it turned the walls all dingy. chams are susceptable to respitory infections, a cheapo ($40) home depot type ceiling fan on low produces almost no noise, very little breeze but good overall circulation , plus most are reversible. you can use cheapo humidifiers or fog machines to help raise the humidity, but nothing works like a good misting system and real plants. jmo

 

[Gregorjr]

The space heater I'm using is similar to baseboard heating; it radiates heat by sending hot oil through the coils. I mist the enclosure three to four times a day, have a high output humidifier, live plants. The problem I'm running into is keeping a cool zone at the bottom of the tank because the space heater is the on the floor. I rearranged the room, added more heat above his tank, added the fan, and reduced the temp. on the space heater. Seems to be working perfect.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

jeez, i will take texas summers anyday. I couldnt take living with snow and trying to keep everybody warm without drying everything out also.

 

[Elizadolots]

Does the space heater have to be on the floor? I love those radiant oil heaters. They are pretty close to the safest thing out there. If you could raise it up some you might be able to forgo the fan.

 

[Carlton]

The space heater I'm using is similar to baseboard heating; it radiates heat by sending hot oil through the coils. I mist the enclosure three to four times a day, have a high output humidifier, live plants. The problem I'm running into is keeping a cool zone at the bottom of the tank because the space heater is the on the floor. I rearranged the room, added more heat above his tank, added the fan, and reduced the temp. on the space heater. Seems to be working perfect.

Ah yes, I've kept chams in bone dry Colorado in the winter.

Any way to put the space heater up higher like on a metal shop shelf, cinder blocks? As for fan noise...are you concerned that the noise bother the cham or you? Chams have very limited hearing...very low frequency sounds only. If the fan annoys YOU, either find a smaller one (it might not take much to move the warm air up) or a well built one with a variable speed control. I LOVE Vornado variable speed fans. They are extremely quiet, very adjustable and versatile. More expensive but they run for years.

 

[Carlton]

jeez, i will take texas summers anyday. I couldnt take living with snow and trying to keep everybody warm without drying everything out also.

LOL! It takes all kinds. A Texas summer would kill me off pretty darned quick. Give me snow snow snow. I have also kept chams in Colorado in the winter. Yep, it can be done...even the high humidity montane species like deremensis.

 

[xanthoman]

sorry , misunderstood, so youre talking about the oil filled ones that usually look like an old steam radiator except that they are 110? thats probably a pretty good heat source, if you can keep youre cham off of it .

 

[Elizadolots]

Well..that is a point. Is the animal free ranging? I thought there was a comment about a "tank".

I don't know that this changes anything because those heaters are so safe they are the only ones recommended for use in children's rooms. I bought one for my ancient father when his heat was out because the word was, you could fall on it and it wouldn't burn you. I tested that (because I'm a skeptic) by waiting for it to heat up and then grabbing it with my hand...and, it was true: no burn. Yet, it did a great job of heating his whole condo (we did the fan blowing on it and managed to heat his whole 2 bedroom condo with the one unit).

 

[Gregorjr]

I did not know that chameleons can only hear at low frequencies; that helps me feel better about the fan. He is in a tank and the heater is about 10-15 feet from it. Raising the heater up is a good idea; gonna see if thy have a shop table that will work. Thanks for the input y'all...