[Temperature] Keeping cool side temps down in summer

[Des9699]

As the title suggests, how can I keep my cool side temps down now that its summer?

I have no AC in my house and we are having unusually hot weather, the cool side temps in my Boas viv have been up at 29.5c and close to 30c.

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[acephantom903]

Re: Keeping cool side temps down in summer

You could take a towel, get it soaked in cool water and set it on top of the cage to evaporate cooling it down slightly. You could also introduce a fan into the room. The problem with using a fan is that it will dry out the cage very quickly and you will need to mist more often. Another thing you could do is get a towel wet and put it in the cage depending on your bedding. Also there is a chance your animal will poop in a towel which can be a bit of a clean up. The temps you told me are warm but not dangerously warm. How is the warm side doing? If you have a bowl large enough for the animal to soak, that is probably fine enough as it is.

[Noelle7206]

Re: Keeping cool side temps down in summer

My source says 30*c. = 86*F (which is what we're used to here across the pond)...& yeah, that's pretty warm for a boa's "cool side".

Personally, I'd turn off the heat for a while when it's that warm...and you could always put a tightly-covered container with ice in the cage at one end (or drop some ice
cubes in the water bowl?)- and see what your snake chooses & if he/she seems to be comfortable? (I think the BCI I used to keep would have been fine with those options;
she often preferred a cool side of mid-70's, with a warm side around 86* max.)

I have A/C but I set my thermostat for 80* in the summer. I turn off the UTH at this time for many of my snakes (colubrids), and minimize the UTH for my boids. I may
turn on the UTH for a day or 2 after feeding, & add a basking spot again for my boids at that time. My only boids at this time are a small Aussie spotted python, who does
like it rather warm, and a desert rosy boa, who is pretty flexible; the point is, make adjustments according to what YOU are keeping and according to the specific conditions
in your home...and always watch your animals to see their response. Remember that "nature" isn't perfect either...

[Noelle7206]

Re: Keeping cool side temps down in summer

You could take a towel, get it soaked in cool water and set it on top of the cage to evaporate cooling it down slightly. You could also introduce a fan into the room....

The problem with "evaporative cooling" is that it works great in the desert but it doesn't work very well in humid areas. (-you should know that, living in Florida, & I think England is humid too? You don't see anyone using evap. cooling here in Arkansas either, lol...)

[acephantom903]

Re: Keeping cool side temps down in summer

It does work until it equalizes. That is why I said soaked. Don't expect the towel to ever dry. I will add that in my cage, the day time tempurature regularly gets to 84 on the cool side or 28.9c and my girl doesn't show any sign of distress. My room gets to 82 (27.8c) during the day and there isn't much I could do to reduce the tempurature. She always has the option to go into her largest water bowl but is often sleeping where ever she feels like. Could be the cool side of 84 (28.9c) or the warm side of 86 (30c). This is the norm here for most of the year.

I will add that at night her cage does cool of to 77 (25.0c) cool side and 84 (28.9c) which is probably helpful for her to handle the heat. Hopefully that is the case with our friends in the UK. We have A/C that struggles during the day and gets cold at night to make the next day a little more bearable. Because of the heat I've put up reflective film in the windows to hold out the heat entering from the windows which keeps the room less than 77 (25.0c) until 10am at which point the sun is baking the walls and roof too hard to keep the heat out. By 1pm the room is 81 (27.2c) and the A/C kicks on for the next 6 hours just so the room doesn't get much hotter. Then it kicks on around 10pm again to cool everything off to be able to sleep comfortably.

[bcr_229]

Re: Keeping cool side temps down in summer

A few years back we lost power for four days in July with daytime high temperatures climbing to 100*F (37*C). It was miserable. Fortunately we do have a generator but it's only enough for the refrigerator/freezer, some fans, LED lights, etc. We had no A/C. Fortunately the incubator was also empty!

Here's how we coped:
North-facing windows were kept open with fans pulling cool air into the house.

South-facing windows and the skylights were physically shaded from the outside of the house; even sunlight hitting an inside shade creates significant heat. These windows got closed in the morning and opened at night.

A frozen 2 liter water bottle set in front of a box fan during the hottest part of the day can drop the room temp, especially if you can close the door. We set these up around lunchtime and put them back in the freezer after dinner.

Thermal mass, such as large heavy water crocks or even just rocks in the enclosure, help moderate high and low ambient temperature swings. We also replaced the water with cool tap water around 2 pm each day.

We napped during the hottest part of the day and did chores at night. Any cooking was done outside on the grill which was set up downwind to keep heat out of the house.

[Des9699]

Re: Keeping cool side temps down in summer

Thanks for all the advice, the temps have dropped a bit here for now.

If they creep up again I will use the advice given to try and cool the viv down.

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