Lighting for Outdoor Enclosure

[LeeCherry]

Hi All

Hope you can help point me in the right direction and sorry if this has been asked before.

I am going to build an doutdoor enclosure for my Leo and need some advice on lighting for the inside of it.

The type of house I will be building is basically like this one (thanks scarytoastmonster) http://www.shelledwarriors.co.uk/for...ad.php?t=42195

What are these lights that are being used? Is one a basking lamp and the other a heat lamp? If so, what are the bulbs for these and where can I find them and the holder? At the moment his indoor enclosure has a big ExoTerra ceramic light holder with a huge bulb which isn't going to fit in here as it will be too close to him. Also, in this photo there is no UV strip light, is that needed?

The slight mod that I will be doing on this is to have a glass panel on the roof to allow sunlight in on days where it is too cold to be out

Thanks !

Lee

[Andyb]

Looks like a ceramic heater, tubular heater and a standard bulb if I am wrong about the buld I am sure someone will put me right!

[LeeCherry]

Thanks Andy

That is not ideal though is it? I also thought it was a standard bulb, what use is that? (Thats not a dig at the enclosure because it is amazing, just thinking out loud)

Also - the ceramic bulb I thought was to give out heat, but there is a tube as well (Ihave a tube which I will be putting in there), so there is double the heat??

[TillyTortoise]

In that enclosure there is one standard household bulb, that will be left on 12 hours a day to provide a basking temperature.. The ceramic heater is on a thermostat probably set to around 20c to ensure the temps don't drop.. The tube heater is also on a thermostat and probably set to around 16c to ensure the night temps don't drop too low. Your tortoise will not require uv when it is outside

[Andyb]

The ceramic will be a basking area and the tube will be for background heat, I think!

[Pussygalore]

when we had outdoor kennels we used a combined for the day's and a ceramic on a thermostat for night and found providing the house is insulated that wa sufficient. In fact we only had 40w ceramics in a kennel about 4ft long the higher watt made it to hot, you do need the height for a combined and our our kennels were 3'6 - 4' high which was plenty. One combined bulb was enough for each house, the torts always had outside access and the combines weren't needed in hot weather.

[LeeCherry]

Thanks guys

The enclosure that I am building will be approc 2ft tall. The combined light is what I currently have I believe.

I am keen to get UV in there for the D3 because in this grim weather he will not be seeing any sunlight other than the glass panel I am going to build into it.

The 40w ceramic is encouraging though, that will keep the running costs down, currently the combined lamp I have is 160w !

[Pussygalore]

you'll still need the wattage for the combined, the ceramics are funny looking bulbs, curly/twisty and only give of heat, if the insulation is good the lower wattage you will need. I think the lowest combined is 100w which might be enough for the area you wish to heat but I don't think there's a lot of difference in price, surrey pets are very good for the arcadia d3 bulbs and zoo plus do the solarglow for even cheaper, not the best for uv but good enough if the tort has outside access or is fed a supplement.

[LeeCherry]

Excellent - thanks for everyones help,

I think I will go for the tube heater on a thermostat for the day and possibly a ceramic in the night in case the tube can't cope. It will be well insulated though so hopefully they won't both have to be on all the time. With this in mind, I may not need to combined as well, so could potentially just go for a UV tube? What do we think? Or have I misunderstood? Or could I get away with not having the tube and just have a standard lamp in there for basking?