Which heat is best for outside box??

[bigbeaks]

I am about to start on a 4' by 4' by 2' hide box by following Tom's design for an 11" female sulcata I just purchased. I can't decide if I want to use a heat mat and CHE or a radiator heater. I'm in north Georgia, and sometimes our winters can be tough. Last winter was really bad! But we probably average the low 40's to high 30's every night. I've used the regular sized radiator heaters before in my house, and it seems like to me they use a lot of power. So what is everyone's opinion on what I should use?
Thanks!

 

[G-stars]

For that size I would use the radiator with a small fan to disperse the heat around.


— Gus

 

[Tom]

Don't use a CHE over head. It will dry out the carapace and possibly cause damage at that height. Use a radiant heat panel over a Kane heat mat instead.

If you use an oil filled heater, use a mini and use it on its lowest setting and with your own reptile thermostat. The full size ones on high can use 1500 watts. WAYYYYYY too much for a 4x4' box. My minis on low are only pulling 250 watts. Make sure your box is well insulated and sealed. This will make everything much more efficient and keep your heat in.

 

[bigbeaks]

Don't use a CHE over head. It will dry out the carapace and possibly cause damage at that height. Use a radiant heat panel over a Kane heat mat instead.

If you use an oil filled heater, use a mini and use it on its lowest setting and with your own reptile thermostat. The full size ones on high can use 1500 watts. WAYYYYYY too much for a 4x4' box. My minis on low are only pulling 250 watts. Make sure your box is well insulated and sealed. This will make everything much more efficient and keep your heat in.

So Tom, do you think the kane and radiant panel uses less or more power than the small radiator heater by itself? I was planning on insulating well. I'm not quite sure how I want to do the door yet. I know I want to make it "expandable" because she's still so small. The only thing I can come up with is to make it what size I want it as an adult and add 2x4 on the inside with screws and take them out as needed. I also want to make a "back door" entrance for me to access it. I will make the top removable, but I'm going to put it under a closed in porch / sunroom, so I wouldn't have room to access the inside from the top. Have you ever made one with a side or back access door?

 

[Tom]

I use those "EZ Watt" inline power meters. According to my meters, the oil heaters in my 4x8' boxes use less electricity than the RHP/heat mat combos in my smaller 4x4' boxes. I think this is because the oil heaters keep throwing off heat long after the the thermostat kicks off the power. They use more power while they are on and heating, but they are on a lot less. I think the RHP/heat mat combos run most of the night on freezing nights. It becomes the difference between 158 watts running constantly vs. 250 watts running intermittently.

Still I prefer the RHP/heat mat combo in the smaller boxes to save floor space for the tortoises. There is a lot more room to play with in the bigger boxes. I usually house multiple tortoise in my boxes, so floor space matters to me. In the case of a single tortoise, I would think that sacrificing a little floor space for an oil heater would be an acceptable compromise.

 

[bigbeaks]

Thank you for the info Tom. Have a question, what do you have on the bottom of the top over the area where the heater is? Do you think the 4 by 4 is large enough for a single female sulcata if I use the radiator heater?