Lighting

PSLIMO

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Hi All,

I see lots of the same lighting questions asked on the forum so I thought I'd post what a FLIR see's for a visual.

The general consensus on MVB's is that they aren't the best choice for UVB because they create hot spots and the FLIR confirms you're 100% correct. Every bulb I imaged had a different very small hot spot as you can see below:

PIC_0036.JPG

Surprisingly, using a CHE as a heat source have greater than a 45 degree even heat print. This pic shows a 150 watt CHE at 20" casting an evenly heated 20"+ circle of heat:

PIC_0038.JPG

And tortoises are pretty good at holding heat as this pic is my tortoise walking out from her basking area:

PIC_0035.JPG
 

Krista S

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This is great to see and very helpful. Thanks for doing this test and sharing your results.
 

ZEROPILOT

REDFOOT WRANGLER
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That's a fantastic illustration.
I've also observed that no two MVB produce the same amount of anything.
Some have 10 times the output of others that are supposedly identical.
Not only that. They are very expensive and seem to not last very long.
They are just a poor choice of good money.
 

PSLIMO

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ZEROPILOT,

The FLIR confirms that with the same setting. FLIR's have several settings.

Here's another 150 watt MVB which has a different pattern from the one in my last post:

PIC_0043.JPG

Here's a 150 watt incandescent bulb with weak basking results. The heat in the lower left is from another source in the enclosure:

PIC_0044.JPG

The clear winner, IMO is a 150 watt CHE for an evenly distributed heat source over the widest area at the same height as the other units.

PIC_0045.JPG

All unit's were at the same height in the same enclosure and yes I understand a UVB source is still needed but for even heat, I'm going with a CHE.
 
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