[Housing] Flexwatt tape with enclosures

[ScottyPimpin]

I just got off the phone with a gentleman that makes enclosures. He sells his with radiant heat panels which are nice but they get a bit expensive when you have 3 or 4 enclosures and the panels are $90 each.

I'm putting my enclosures in a living room where the ambient temp is about 69f-70f and i'm being told by this gentlemen that the flexwatt heat tape won't be enough heat for the enclosure. Is this true, does anyone have any experience with this? I've noticed animal plastics has an option for underbelly heat tape as well so i'm a bit confused. Are these made for rooms that have much higher ambient temps?

I'm looking at a 72" enclosure for my red tail and a couple 48" for the brazilian rainbow and the gf's pythons. My goal here is to make one purchase and make it right the first time

[nediver]

Re: Flexwatt tape with enclosures

I don't know who it is your talking to, but I have some guesses. Sounds perfectly correct to me. Calculate the wattage of the heat tape and they the suggested heat panel. I bet you will get more watts from the panel then the tape. In other words you would need 2X the tape to heat the same enclosure. Please also don't forget to include a controller like a Helix Proportional thermo is you go with RHP. They are more than the Ranco's but you absolutly need proportional if your going to use RHP. I use both sources now and I prefer RHP, because I can keep my room much cooler. I have heat tape on some enlcosures and I needed to buy a radiant oil filled room heater. I love that the room is now 70-73 it makes it nice since its also my office, but the RHP alone used to do the job. So either way what I am saying is the guy is correct you will need more heat, you decide how you want that to be delivered.