Ideas for cheap heating.

Arachnomaniac19

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Does anyone know how to heat a bunch of enclosures at once that isn't insanely expensive? I'm looking to heat things up from 21C. If that's not possible, what species would live fine in that temperature? Thanks!
 

Christianb96

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either make a heating cabinet, or use a floor heater to heat an entire room. How many enclosures do you have? Also I don't know of any species that would live fine at that tempature, someone else might though
 

Arachnomaniac19

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either make a heating cabinet, or use a floor heater to heat an entire room. How many enclosures do you have? Also I don't know of any species that would live fine at that tempature, someone else might though
All of my other enclosures are heated from being near other tanks. A floor heater is way too expensive to run.
 

Christianb96

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Then I'd recommend some large wattage ceramic heat lamps to hang above the enclosures
 

Galapoheros

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If they are glass terreriums, I would plug in a heater cable and run it behind several terrariums in a straight line right at the substrate level. Most of this stuff doesn’t need the whole enclosure at a specific temp. They do regulate body temp using the environment, I see it every day I go in the bug room. Things will park next to the heat source to warm up.
 

Arachnomaniac19

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So, slightly off topic, would a Hadrurus sp. and a Hadogenes sp. work well at 21 during the winter, going up to 25 during the summer?
 

Chad Peace

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So, slightly off topic, would a Hadrurus sp. and a Hadogenes sp. work well at 21 during the winter, going up to 25 during the summer?
you could just get a small fan heater, i got one for £10 and it works fine at heating my whole room
 

Red Eunice

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So, slightly off topic, would a Hadrurus sp. and a Hadogenes sp. work well at 21 during the winter, going up to 25 during the summer?
IMO, no. 21°C is ok for a few days, not 2-3 months. 25°C is a more suitable temperature for both species year round.
Most scorpions do best in the 24°- 27°C range, a few as high as 29°C.
 

Red Eunice

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That's still too expensive to run 24/7.
What is too expensive?
I run a space heater in the room, doesn't run 24/7, cycles on/off. At worse, only increases the electric by $30, and its below grade. (Basement) Room fluctuates between 23-25°C. Heated & insulated cabinet (earlier post) is used for slings and scorpions @27°C and rarely is the Flexwatt on.
If your room is above grade, maybe keep the windows shut. J/k ;)
 

Arachnomaniac19

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What is too expensive?
I run a space heater in the room, doesn't run 24/7, cycles on/off. At worse, only increases the electric by $30, and its below grade. (Basement) Room fluctuates between 23-25°C. Heated & insulated cabinet (earlier post) is used for slings and scorpions @27°C and rarely is the Flexwatt on.
If your room is above grade, maybe keep the windows shut. J/k ;)
Prices change in different places. Where I live, electricity has a tendency to be stupidly expensive.
 

Tanner Dzula

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That's still too expensive to run 24/7.
honestly you are not going to get many more answers that are significantly cheaper then these ones.

if your collection is small enough to get in a heating cabinet, id suggest that as its a lot less work to heat a small controlled/condensed space and you will not need to keep it running 24/7(assuming its even a halfway decent cabinet with even subpar insulation)

if your collection is a little to big to fit in a cabinet, then the cheapest options to heat would be heating the general area the collection is in(this will work best if you keep them in the smallest room you can possible)
for this i would suggest one of the following:

Low wattage ceramic heaters, Low wattage space/floor heaters or a heating fan.

It would also help to best insulate the area/room they are in.

Hell some of the Heaters you can get use less wattage them my Vape does, like this one:
Personal Space Heater 50 Watt Portable Electric Fan Compact Heater with Adjustable Thermostat by Cozy Products

and so on. to be honest, most of the lower wattage ones are not going to be that expensive. i keep 3 heaters going in my room all winter long (2 ceramic for my reptiles that need it, and 1 small space heater for the Room itself and all my T's/other inverts) and there has been a minimal bump in cost for my monthly bill with these 3 added.

if anything, get one with a automatic timer, and only keep it on during the coldest hours of the night. atlas this will minimize the low end of the temps dropping, and will keep it a more stable temp al together, as during the day when the temps rise again, they won't need to rise as much and it will stay warmer for longer that way.
 

Red Eunice

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Prices change in different places. Where I live, electricity has a tendency to be stupidly expensive.
I understand. Having friends in Halifax, they dread winter heating bills.
Here, residential electric costs fluctuates on Kw used monthly. Use >500 Kw, rate is 6.8 cents Kw hour, above that becomes 7.7 cents Kw hour. The reverse for commercial users, but they use tens of thousands Kw and the cost is passed on to the consumer. Go figure! :banghead:
 

Tanner Dzula

Arachnoknight
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I understand. Having friends in Halifax, they dread winter heating bills.
Here, residential electric costs fluctuates on Kw used monthly. Use >500 Kw, rate is 6.8 cents Kw hour, above that becomes 7.7 cents Kw hour. The reverse for commercial users, but they use tens of thousands Kw and the cost is passed on to the consumer. Go figure! :banghead:
which isn't too bad!
i live in PHX az and well, heres ours:
and thats non-"peak" hours of the day in summer.
god-forbid keeping your AC on at 1pm in the middle of July/august(average of 105-115 Degrees F, 40 C - 46 C) , depending on the day can go up an extra 50% even. rare but sometimes happens.
 

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Arachnomaniac19

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I'm thinking of using Flexwatt running down a shelving unit. Should it be touching the plastic of the tanks, or should it be kept a few inches away?
 
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