Heating/lighting advice

[Lea272]

Hi folks

I was wondering if I could pick some brains regarding heating/lighting for Matilda

We currently have the 100W megaray combi heat/UV bulb, suspended in an 8.5" clamp lamp, heating and lighting our 4x2ft table. Up until recently this has been fine at achieving an adequate temperature - we were consistently reading 30-32 degrees under the lamp and around 20 at the non-heated end. For the past couple of weeks, however, the lamp is really struggling to get to adequate temperature in the basking spot (reaching around 26/27 degrees) even at the lowest height on the lamp stand, 12" above tortoise height. The table is in the smallest room of our house and we've been putting the heating on a lot to see if that helps (it does a little, may bring it up to 28-30 under the lamp but I'm still not happy). I don't think it's related to the ambient temperature of the room, as that is around 20 degrees and readings are much the same as they were before the problems with the lamp, albeit a little cooler at night now.

I contacted Megaray and explained the issue and they sent me a replacement bulb early last week. This did get back up to 32 degrees on the first day of use, but since then it doesn't seem to get above 27 without background heating on (dread to think what this is doing to the heating bill ).

My main question is do you think a 160W bulb would resolve the problem and get the basking area to the right heat? (I don't want to cook her!) The 160W bulb on the Megaray site is described as "Mercury Vapour UVB bulb - is this significantly different to what I already have and is it suitable? (http://www.megaray.co.uk/mega-ray-c-50.html product descriptions for the bulb I currently have + the 160W)
Or am I going to need to replace my heating and light set up? I initially went with the combi bulb set up because it seemed a more straight forward than having a separate UV strip and heat bulb - I was (and still am, a little bit) confused about what I would need to get if I were to do this.

Any advice/recommendations will be greatly appreciated

Thanks!
Leanne

[wigwamman]

hi there,you have a few options open to you here.

1. put extra heating in the room,oil filled radiator/fan heater.
2. insulate he area above the table,a tent type structure covered with bubble wrap or similar will hold the warmth.
3.invest in a habistat dimmer,another ceramic light holder and a c.h.e.
personally i would go for 2+3,the c.h.e.could be used at night also to keep the temp up.
be wary of hot bulbs,the c.h.e.will get very hot!

[gorebrush]

We have a CHE and a thermostat - temperature is generally around 20'C at night.

And yes, those CHE's do get insanely hot - I've tested ours with a radar gun type thermometer and it'll go over 130'C

Definitely do not want to be touching that by accident!

[Shelled Lady]

Basically, there is not enough background heat. As it is now colder, you need a stronger bulb. The one you have would have been fine in the warm weather. I would always go for 160w rather than 100w. It can aways be hung up higher if the table gets too hot. I have always had another ordinary spot lamp near the other end, which covers the eating area. This is in the winter even with CH on during the day and the table next to a radiator!

[gorebrush]

Yes we have this problem too - in the daytime now our "pretend" 80W bulb is not powerful enough. It is actually only 45W or something silly like that so I managed to go find a 105W bulb instead.

[Lea272]

Thanks so much for the replies and advice! I'll get on it today, get a hotter bulb and find a CHE kit

I'll casually mention the "insulation tent" to my Dad, I know he can't resist a project

Thanks again!

[becciwales]

We bought our CHE on amazon x

[wigwamman]

here are a few of my ideas to keep tortys warm and save some £s







i know this wouldn't look fantastic in your front room but this works for me in a spare bedroom,cardboard front is set in place evenings only.

[becciwales]

I couldn't live with that in my living room. if that becomes necessary, he'll have to move upstairs. Though he's kind of tucked under the stairs, so the room isn't so high where he is.

[Lea272]

Ace!! I reckon I could put something like that together!

When it comes to CHE set up, am I right to think that I'm best placing that near to her basking area to try and keep that end of the table hot and the other end cooler?

Has anybody used the Habistat day and night thermostat? I was wondering if that would be a useful gadget so I could set the lamp up to work at a cooler temp at night as well.

Thanks