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UTH/thermostat/rheostat confusion

Greeling

Greeling

New member
i've always used heatlamps for my reptiles. well my dads been getting annoyed with this and has agreed to get me a UTH for all my cages (not bad considering i'm moving out in 6 months lol). unfortunately, i have no idea where to begin.

whats the best deal for the money, the safest/cheapest/most relible option.
should i go with heat tape, mats, or cords. and whats the differance between a thermostat and a rheostat? should i go with a fancy name brand or should i try to make my own? and what are the best sized heating areas for a 29 gl T, a 37 gl T, and a standard 10 gal tanks? what obvious and not so obvious safety issues do i need to address, for my animals and myself.
and what questions am i not asking. :shrugs:
 
A thermostat measures outside temperatures and adjusts the amount of power/power supply to your heat source, so that no matter WHAT temperature the room or cage is, the heat source will only be supplied enough power to get to the temperature you specified. It doesn't matter if the room is 50 degrees or 80 degrees, your heat source will be limited to produce only enough heat to get to the temperature you tell it.

A rheostat allows you to manually set how much power is supplied to your heat source - but this does not take into account room temperature. If you set your rheostat on a day when it's 50 degrees in your room to make the cage floor 85 degrees, then the rheostat is set basically to allow 'thirty degrees' worth of power' to the heat mat. Now what happens if your room temperature is 80 degrees? Your rheostat is STILL giving the heat source the same amount of power - which means that it'll be a lot hotter than the 85 degrees you wanted it to be.

I use both heat mats and heat cable, and I'm equally happy with both.
I have a dimming thermostat (which works like a rheostat with a temperature sensor) and that's great; I have mat stats (which turn the heat source on and off to maintain temperature) which are also pretty good for everything but light bulbs - I'd like to pick up some 'pulse proportional' thermostats which supply constant pulses of energy to maintain the temperature - no 'on/off' but not quite the 'analogue' equivalent of a dimmer - for use with my heat mats and cable.
 
the herpstat is a bit of overkill for one corn.

If you want a reliable low cost thermostat, check out the ZooMed 500R at reptilesupply.com for 19.99 plus shipping.
 
Flagg said:
the herpstat is a bit of overkill for one corn.

If you want a reliable low cost thermostat, check out the ZooMed 500R at reptilesupply.com for 19.99 plus shipping.
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I supose ur right on that one. But if your thinking of getting more in the future id say go for it :)
 
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