well, this is our first year in our new house-- and we've had more problems than you can imagine.
At the old place, we were insulated, and heated- and wonderful...

This place is better insulated, but very poorly heated!

we have double insulated garage doors, insulation and sheetrock on the walls- weather stripping on the side door, and plastic over the windows.

I am lacking one heater because there isn't a place to plug one into--- we are on fuses- not breakers- and the fuses can't handle another heater.....


are there any other things we can do RIGHT NOW to get the reptile room warmer. (reptile room was formerly the garage- but has been converted- with what we thought were good improvements)... we never had these problems at the old place.... its annoying!!

in about 2-3 weeks we'll have the $ to move the central h/a vents to that room (2 of them actually)-- and then we will be fine, but the next 2 weeks will be very cold.
We're maintaining temps of about 58 at nite but only getting up to about 75 during the warmest part of the day... hot spots are warmer- about 80... just not warm enough...

thanks
Beth

What type of heating are you using on the enclosures ? Those are the temps you need to be concerned with.

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Ken
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem." -- Ronald Reagan

Its the ambient temps i'm having a hard time with.

All of our cages were built for the old house- where the room stayed at 84 degrees- year round- no matter the outside temp.

Many of them are very open- because we had the old place sealed up with moisture barier plastic- and had humidifiers running- it was perfect- perfect ambient temps and we placed the different species of snakes/lizards near or away from the humidifiers according to thier needs- it really was PERFECT!

we're using ceramic heat emitters, regular light bulbs, some have under tank heaters, some have flexwatt-- they're all different...
The cages were built at different times, depending on the supplies we had available at the time- so they're all different.

I'm trying to get the temp in the entire room up to 84 again- i loved the old house- we had the same cages in a different garage- and had no problems- but we installed central h/a over there- and we just haven't had the 700-1,000$ to do it here yet.

We moved in during august and just weren't ready for the cold yet- and now we're scrambling....

its so frustrating! we still aren't settled in and now we've started this huge kitchen remodel and its just a mess!!

is there any heat conserving ideas you have?

Can you possibly run an extension cord to that room and use a space heater ?

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Ken
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem." -- Ronald Reagan

lmao- done that- there are 3 running right now.

Its just not enough-
I think we're going to buy a gas heater tomarrow and just hook that up to the gas line- and see if that works any better.
I've got a tarp hanging inside the house with the door open so the heat thats in the house will go out there...

anyway- i think we've figured it out.

Thanks

I live in an old house too. Very cold sometimes.

Seal up everything as much as you can. Cracks in the wall, doors, the space where the walls and floor meet... Just make extra sure the are sealed as tightly as you can get them.

Move the cages away from the walls, where it's coldest, and try putting something between them and the walls, if possible. You can also cover all the windows with thick curtains. Or you could cover open sides of the cage with some plexiglass or plastic of some kind.

Honestly, though, two weeks of low ambient temperatures aren't going to hurt them as they still have heat. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

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"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.

keeping the windows covered is good at nights, but not so much at days.
during the days, if you open the blinds on the windows that are facing the sun then sunlight will come in the room and heat it up.

but if the windows are drafty nevermind.

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i'd be better off opening my own small zoo.

the windows arent drafty anymore- we've got weather stripping on the openings and sealed the cracks around the stationary glass with silcone.

i just went out and opened the sunny window curtain- its a lot brighter out there for sure.

i've gotten a lot of laundry done recently- a washer and dryer really heat the place up nice!!

problem is, now i'm down to washing pillows... but thats at least another 4 loads...


i just worry about them being so cold for a few weeks- right after they were colder for 2 weeks, due to the ice storm and no electric....

its just been a cold winter here for everyone and i'm terrified of URI's....

thanks guys- and I wasn't able to find a gas heater that would work out there... so i'm still looking...

beth

i know there are kerosene heaters you can use, just be sure its for indoor use. I'm not sure on the fumes.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

most high end computers are pretty effective space heaters :P. so depending on how high end your pc is and how much you have it running, it might put out a lot of heat. could try moving it to the reptile room. might not be to convenient, but it might work.

I live in a modular home and they aren't well known for having good insulation, but with my computer running 24/7 my room is always around 80F. when I have it off my room will drop to 70F overnight. a few weeks ago I had it off for a few days and my room dropped to the lower 60s.

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i'd be better off opening my own small zoo.