Night box temperatures too high?

[Failshed]

Hi all,
Just wanted to see if I should be concerned or not with the air temps of my newly built sulcata night box (based on Tom’s single tort box). It’s fully insulated (door and roof included) but I’m concerned the temps lately may be too high. We’re located in Central Florida we’ve been in the 100s the past couple weeks and the inside air temp of the night box is upper 90s (97ish)at the highest I’ve observed. We have shade outside (sweet gum tree) in the middle of his enclosure, but the box is not shaded for a part of the day. The temps dropped back down to 78 last night after hours of rain. I haven’t taken temp of the ground in the enclosure, but I will today. My partner took a temp reading this morning of our boy’s shell and it was 86.6 at 11am this morning while he was inside the night box.

I guess I’m asking if I should be concerned and if so, what should we do to give Toast a more comfortable environment? I’ve attached some pics of what we have currently set up.

Thank you all in advance,
Failshed

 

[Markw84]

Paint the top of the night box white. I use the same type night boxes and with a white top, even on 114° days in full sun, they never get too hot. I would not be concerned about the night box reaching 95° on a real hot afternoon. If more than that with a white top, you would need a shade sail over the box.

 

[Tom]

I agree with Mark. Every June I paint the tops white, and every November I paint the tops a darker color. All that paint keeps the tops in good shape too.

Adding shade from an umbrella, pop up tent, or even a large car port, helps a lot too. You can buy a 10x20 car port for about $180 on Amazon. Or a 10x10 for under $100. Umbrellas are $40-50 for the cheap ones. Just mount it all very securely so it doesn't blow away or get destroyed in the first wind. Take it down if heavy winds are coming your way.

As long as the temps stay under 100 in there it's fine. We will have 110+ days here too and it only gets up to about 90 in my boxes. When high temps stay only in the 90s, my boxes stay in the mid to low 80s.

Do you have the clear vinyl door flaps on? This also keeps the cooler air in and the hot air out. Or vice versa in winter. Makes a big difference.

Finally you can vent the top a little on cooler nights to let the heat out. I will sometimes place a flat 2x4 between the lid and the box at night when I'm trying for cooler temps inside.

 

[Failshed]

Paint the top of the night box white. I use the same type night boxes and with a white top, even on 114° days in full sun, they never get too hot. I would not be concerned about the night box reaching 95° on a real hot afternoon. If more than that with a white top, you would need a shade sail over the box.

Thank you for the reply, Mark. I was literally looking at shade sails last night as a possible solution. The white roof is a great idea. I appreciate the ideas and response.

I agree with Mark. Every June I paint the tops white, and every November I paint the tops a darker color. All that paint keeps the tops in good shape too.

Adding shade from an umbrella, pop up tent, or even a large car port, helps a lot too. You can buy a 10x20 car port for about $180 on Amazon. Or a 10x10 for under $100. Umbrellas are $40-50 for the cheap ones. Just mount it all very securely so it doesn't blow away or get destroyed in the first wind. Take it down if heavy winds are coming your way.

As long as the temps stay under 100 in there it's fine. We will have 110+ days here too and it only gets up to about 90 in my boxes. When high temps stay only in the 90s, my boxes stay in the mid to low 80s.

Do you have the clear vinyl door flaps on? This also keeps the cooler air in and the hot air out. Or vice versa in winter. Makes a big difference.

Finally you can vent the top a little on cooler nights to let the heat out. I will sometimes place a flat 2x4 between the lid and the box at night when I'm trying for cooler temps inside.

Thank you for the reply, Tom. I will be painting the roof white tomorrow morning and see where that gets us. The box does have vinyl flaps.
The air temp did reach 100 today. The floor temp is 89.4 at the time of writing this with an air temp of 98.6.
I’m going to take y’all’s advice and paint to see if that brings it down a bit. If paint alone doesn’t cut it we were looking at 4x4x10” and a square shade sail over that side of the enclosure/night box.

 

[Failshed]

*4”x4”x10’* posts as anchor points.

Again, thank you both for the advice and suggestions. Much appreciated.