I may be considered a "lurker" and admittedly inactive. I rescued an ig about 3 yrs ago and was constantly frustrated with the problems of providing a good habitat. Since this time I have been working on a different heating mat that self regulates with no thermostat. In other words if a heat lamp is on part of it it will not generate heat and when it is on it will produce heat but not go over say 90 degrees.

I apologize if this is the wrong place to discuss it. I am prototyping and am close to what I want. Any thoughts?

I moved it to the Herp Habitat construction/heating forum. I'd like to hear your ideas on how this would work.

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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

Thank you. It is a low voltage heating mat that self regulates temperature. When it is warm environment it produces less or no heat when cooler it heats. It can not over heat. It energizes and maintains a set temperature that's it.

I am just tweaking the encasements, connectors and acquiring the best power supply available. Any comments or suggestions would be great.

How will it self regulate ? I'm not very technical so this seems a little strange to me.

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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

I'd also love to hear more about how it works. It sounds like a fascinating project!

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~Juliane~

The material is made of a carbon/polymer mix that conducts electricity and generates heat. When carbon molecules get warmer they spread apart conversely when cooler they get closer together. The more dense the carbon molecules the more conductive and the opposite when less dense. The amount of carbon determines the conductivity and (maximum) heat generating capacity. So the material is self regulating. This in essence is how it self regulates. By changing the amount of carbon you change conductivity and the temperature it will maintain.

This is ancient technology the hard part is making it work where I want to use it.

Sounds awesome......this is a product I would definately be interested in. Keep us posted

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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

Sounds like the sort of stuff our people here at Helwig Carbon (Where I work) would know, but I can't help because I'm just the software guy.

My mats are designed to maintain about 90 degrees, Any input on that? I could offer one to maintain about 80 also. Another question I would like to get feed back..a permanantly sealed vynal enclosure or a specialized frabic that kills bacteria or both?

Soundin pretty cool eh. So far the connecters are waterproof only.

I would make it closer to 95 degrees. This would be a good hot spot for tropical animals but not too hot for temperate.
And totally sealed would be the way to go.
With bacteria killing fabric you would be dealing with toxins and I would be hesitant to put it in an animal's enclosure.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!