Keeping temps down in summer

[Chameleonmaster]

This will be my first summer with montane species that need lower temps.
What do I need to keep the temps down? Should I just turn on the a/c unit to keep them cool? I'm thinking about turning the heat lamps off during the summer.

 

[Saldarya]

Do you keep them in a separate room that you can better control the temp in or will you have to adjust the whole house?

 

[camimom]

you don't want to turn the lights off as they cant recognize air temps as well.

Just use a lower watt bulb, even if you use the lowest bulb you can, you should leave it on.

 

[Chameleonmaster]

My house can get to the upper 80s and I love in an apartment so it's kinda hard to have one room specifically set to a temp. I'm thinking of moving them in the living room where the a/c unit is so its cooler.

 

[Chameleonmaster]

you don't want to turn the lights off as they cant recognize air temps as well.

Just use a lower watt bulb, even if you use the lowest bulb you can, you should leave it on.

I have 40w bulbs I'm thinking 25w might work.

 

[mcanham]

This will be my first summer with montane species that need lower temps.
What do I need to keep the temps down? Should I just turn on the a/c unit to keep them cool? I'm thinking about turning the heat lamps off during the summer.

Buy a small window air conditioner. 5k btu or less and your set. They are easy to set up and dont cost too much to run. Cheaper than cooling the whole place. That is what i use in my garage/chameleon home. Leave the lights on, even though it sounds counter intuitive.

 

[Carlton]

This will be my first summer with montane species that need lower temps.
What do I need to keep the temps down? Should I just turn on the a/c unit to keep them cool? I'm thinking about turning the heat lamps off during the summer.

I'm not trying to attack your plans, but IMHO, if your rooms are going to get this warm in summer maybe keeping montane species isn't going to be very realistic for your situation. But, it sounds as if you already have them.

That being said, the AC will help if you do move them closer to it, but it will also dry out the air quite a lot so you'll need to run foggers, misters, etc. to replace the moisture. And, you may have to crank up the AC to provide the night time temp drop that montanes really need (if the day temps are borderline too high for them especially). If you have auto misters or foggers you might be able to cool the cage off by chilling the water reservoir for those units too.

You can turn off the basking lights after a short morning warm up and leave the UV lights on as usual, but chances are your apartment is going to absorb a lot more heat from the whole building itself rather than a few small lightbulbs inside. That may not make much difference. Dropping the watt of the bulbs will help a little but not much.