52 suite hatchling apartment

Nice job, but I have a couple of questions about the heating setup:

1) I've not used Flexawatt before, and I'm wondering about the power draw with all of it in a single circuit. Would it have been better to have each side independently adjustable to reduce the load and give better temp control?

2) Given hot air's tendency to rise, are you concerned about the top racks being too hot if the bottom ones are adjusted correctly?

I'm not criticizing (far from it!), I'm just curious - and thinking about how I could use the design for my own nefarious purposes in the future ...

To respond to your questions Guru

1. The power needed for these panels is quit low, comparable to dim reading lamp. The dimmer switch is made to control up to a dozen light bulbs, so I'm not at all concerned about having it on one circuit. As for controlling left and right independently, each side is identical in lay out and with nothing in the room effecting the heat of one side or the other, I don't think this will be an issue. If it is, it's just a few twists of the wire and a few wire caps and I can add a second switch in very easy.

2. Given the low amount of heat put out by the panel, I'm not expecting rising air to be a problem, also is the air wants to flow somewhere, it can't just move up, it would have to flow to the front of the shelves to move up.

After leaving it plugged in and set to half power for a day I used my temperature gun to find out how even it was heating.
The left and right sides were indeed completely identical in temperatures but I found the inner two columns averaged about 1-2 degrees higher than the outside two, I suppose this would be due to heat loss through the sides. Oh well, 1-2 degrees is no big deal.
Also from top to bottom the bottom two rows were about 2 degrees cooler than the rest but after row two it all evened out. Given the flexible range that corns can healthily survive at, I'm pretty sure this will not be an issue.

I really love the setup! Do you have it in use yet?

That is so cool! Do you have any issues with the water cup (may just be the picture, it looks fairly tall)?

That looks awesome! I had plans to build an identical rack with those exact containers this winter! What thickness and size of melamine did you use, and how exactly did you do to cut the dividers to fit so perfectly? I am thinking of doing something identical, except with 72 bins and constructed using 1/2" PVC sheet, screws, and the new THG heat tape with a herpstat.

Thanks!

Very professional finish!
Love it

Great rack. To be honest not a big fan of racks for baby colubrids. I heat my herp room so I find deli cups work real well. Cheap only about twenty bucks to house one hundred snakes, easy to clean, and stack floor to ceiling real well. By no means is this critisim just what I do.

Looks great!

BRAVO !!

Someday, maybe this year, I'll be thinking about making a similar setup. Thank you for the wonderful pictures.

really impressed by this. thank you very much for detailing everything and posting