Here are some pictures of my Aldabran/Yellowfoot shed. The yellowfoot tortoises are on the right side just over the wall out of sight. The shed has 4 pig blankets, 6 light fixtures with 3 being on all the time and the electricity comes from the garage through a heavy duty (I think it's 16 gauge) extension cord which you can see in the outside view.

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I'm not sure if both pictures attached or not. If they didn't I'll add another post.

Yvonne

In the first picture you can see the area to the right that is covered with black shade cloth. That is where I keep the baby yellowfoot tortoise during the good weather. The adults go out their door, which is not visible, to the right to their outside yard, and there is a pond just to the right out of the photo. I'm standing in the Aldab pen and it extends behind and to the left of me.

Yvonne

Here's a shot of my leopard tortoise pen and shed. The old house on the left is vacant and used as an overgrown storage shed. The leopard shed is in the center top of the photo and you can plainly see the extension cord feeding it tacked up on the side of the old house. If you can afford it you really need to have an electrician come out and add wiring to your breaker box for your tortoises. I had a 35amp breaker along with about 75' of wiring done to feed my greenhouse (and the leopard pen is on this circuit) and it only cost about $200. It's much safer to have it done right. But if you choose the extension cord route bear in mind it really isn't safe and you might cause a fire. Or your cord and breaker won't be big enough for the load and you'll blow the breaker during the night and not realize your torts are cold until too late.

Yvonne[attachment=351]

Until my new husband came along a couple of years ago, we had major electricity shortage at our place. Both of the houses are well over 100 years old, which I love. Unfortunately that meant each room had one or maybe two 2-plug outlets. We also had the fun of playing games with what you had to turn off, before you turned on something else or you popped the fuse. So we had oodles of cords running everywhere. Often one cord would have another one attached. Not sure why we never burned the house down.

Jeff replaced the fuse box and ran new wires and lots and lots of 4-plug outlets. It is so amazing to not have cords everywhere. To just reach down and there is an outlet waiting. Not to mention not having to play the give and take game with what is running. All the lights, heaters, filters, ect.., with the turtle and torts can be on along with the microwave and computer. Will wonders never cease!!

He's also handy as a plumber, which is coming into use too.

Yvonne,

This is a great thread to educate on extension cords...thanks


Nerses