question about heating

[Josh]

I just built this enclosure yesterday its 4'x2'x1' and I used 2 feet of 11in. flexwatt heat tape for heating. The heat tape heats up to 120 degrees, and the room temp is 75. The heat tape is installed on the back left side and I can only get the ambient temp of the enclosure th heat up to 77 degrees with the tape on full blast. The cage is on a exterior wall.

Why cant I get the cage to heat up do I need more heat tape

[froggystyle34]

Re: question about heating

first of all are your thermometers inside or outside of the cage, they need to in. second you can add a radient heat panel, or look at my post to see how i am heating mine. i hope this helps and good luck

froggy

[tatdaddy]

Re: question about heating

Try to move it away from the wall you have it on. Exterior walls have a draft of coller air allways flowing down them. This could be why you r temp are only gettin gup to 77. Good luck hope this works for you.

[Red]

Re: question about heating

Ok well if you can't move it away from the wall just put a blanket on the top and the back side kinda' lay it over the top and down the back side...  This will insolate it quit well...   This might help...  The other thing you can do is get another heating pad and put it in on the other side and run it on a low temp like 82 and the other side on like 90 with the heat tape this will bring up the temp and give you a perty good heat gradiant...   And last but not least you should have some thing that covers the hole bottom of the cage to hold it then cold air will not be able to get to the bottom where the heat is coming from....
Eric aka...red
p.s. oh ya and you need to ether move the cage away from the window or get a curton heave one at that to cover that window... This may be the big problem...

[ClayEnglish]

Re: question about heating

Hey Josh,

The 2 feet of flexwatt should be more than enough for that enclosure...

Couple of questions..

What is the temp on the actual back wall where the flexwatt is located? Place a gauge on that wall and get a ready, this should represent the "hot" area... Also gauges mounted to the window tend to misreport the temps a lot of times.. Place one temperarily on the right inside wall... That is a good place to check the ambient temp.

Is the heat tape on a thermostat/rheostat device? If so, you may need to bypass it long enough to check for the proper heating levels.

Last and probably most important, did you say the heat tape does heat up very nicely itself.. If the heat tape is only warm, there may be a problem with the physical connection made between the cord and the flexwatt. You may have to recrimp the connections...

Let me know and I will try to help further..

[Josh]

Re: question about heating

well this enclosure is heating just fine now. The temp is around 89 degrees at the back where the heat tape is installed. I think I had the thermostat in the wrong place. I have taken out the heating pad and it is still heating fine.


Thanks for the help.

Josh