Jackson's Cooling.

[Remkon]

Dear all,

I am new here and from the Netherlands!
I registered here because all Dutch chameleon related forums are 'dead'.

As the title suggests I have a (juvenile) Jackson's chameleon.
I bought it last April when I bumped in to it looking for Rhampholeon Brevicaudatus at an reptile exchange.
Since I've bought it I got totally hooked on Chameleons and am still planning to buy the Rhampholeons at a later time...

One thing that 'bothers' me about the Jackson's is that it needs a nightly temperature drop.
According to the care-sheets ideally it needs to drop to 15C (59F) degrees and should never exceed the 21C (70F) degrees. Most of the year this isn't a problem since my Jackson's has it's own room and I can open the balcony door to drop temps during the winter/autumn and during the spring/summer he should be outside normally...
But recently temperatures are not consistent with cold nights and also when I'm on holiday I can't leave my precious Jackson's outside and I also can't ask of the person taking care of my charm to stay in the house all evening to open and close the balcony door.
So I was wondering how do you accomplish the nightly temperature drops?

Here's what I tried:
- I have tried peltier elements but they don't cool well if the cold part isn't in an isolated space.
To make this function it would need a lot of peltiers and would consume a lot of electricity.
- I tried the DIY airco but you have to move icepacks from the fridge to the cooler which no one is going to consistently do when I'm on holiday.
- Ice Packs on the enclosure, just helps a little...
- fan in the room, also helps a little

I have not tried this but my highest hopes yet:
I will still use 5 or 6 12CM PC fans to blow cold air from outside into the room trough a vent that's above the balcony door. I will connect the fans to an arduino that's going to function as thermostat to switch on/off the fans at set temperatures.

Cheers!

 

[leedragon]

you may want to invest in an AC for the night that gets too hot.

 

[Remkon]

I am keeping an AC in mind in case of emergency but here in the Netherlands night temperatures don't often stay above 20C in summer so I should be able to cool enough without the use of an AC.

I'm keeping a pile of ice packs in the fridge at all time in case a hot night occurs but if I ever come across a cheap portable AC that cools to 15C I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. Usually ACs are pretty expensive here because not a lot of households have AC so the market is pretty small...

 

[Andee]

My temps never drop below 64 degrees Farenheit. If I have a particularly warm night, where my room stays in the 70's -75 range, my room is always a little bit warmer than the rest of the house, usually about a few degrees; I usually put a cool blue ice pack, one of the hard ones that stay cold forever. Right over her cage. I take it off in the morning. She does fine in the night, however sometimes during the day it's the worst. I can get temps that sky rocket to a room temp of 85-90 degrees. I have no available AC and my room is very warm with all the lights in it. I am renting so I can't install a good AC in the house. What I do since she is the most important to stay cool is I have a cool mist humidifier that goes off at intervals and I turn off her basking light sometimes during the morning after she has warmed up. I haven't had to do it this year yet. But I know what I need to do if it gets too warm.

 

[Remkon]

I haven't noticed any issues with sleeping yet.
I do shine a light into his eye occasionally when he sleeps to see if he's in a deep sleep and resting properly.

I also read from a Dutch breeder that the younger Jacksons do better in higher temperatures (18-25C) during the night and that a drop to 15C temp could even harm them...

80-90F here only happens a week in every few years, maybe... So I'm not to worried about such temps.

I think Ill keep him a little warmer during the day so the temp suring the night can be a little higher too...
Along with that I will have a string of pc-fans blow cold air into the room at night. I will keep the blue icepacks in the fridge as well just in case.

 

[leedragon]

yeah I hear you. I live in sweden and some times it gets too hot at the evenings and nights even for me to sleep. so I said f*ck it and bought a bit over 400 dollars AC.
If I may say. it is a bit expensive but it is an investment. it has a guarantee for a couple of years and my animals will benefit of it too. side note I was born in the mountains too and funny enough I can´t manage higher temperatures. for my 25 C at day it about what I can handle. Ha seem like the pet takes after the owner?

 

[Remkon]

I like cooler temperatures too, especially at night so the AC is still on the list...

I'm not in a rush buying it but I'll probably will do so for the convenience of it and because I just want the best for my Jacksonii...

Maybe I can get one for cheaper after summer when sores want to get rid of the older models... I'll just save ip and keep my eyes open.

 

[leedragon]

I like cooler temperatures too, especially at night so the AC is still on the list...

I'm not in a rush buying it but I'll probably will do so for the convenience of it and because I just want the best for my Jacksonii...

Maybe I can get one for cheaper after summer when sores want to get rid of the older models... I'll just save ip and keep my eyes open.

yeah do that, meanwhile you can cold shower the terrarium at night put some frozen bottles inside their cage and have the cage near the floor were it´s cooler. cheers man