heating a gecko room

[hcgeckos]

Hey guys, quick question. I am in the process of converting an extra room in the upstairs of our house in to a designated reptile room. the room measures around 13'x13' and is separated from the rest of the heat in the house. I am trying to find the most efficient way to heat it that will definitely keep it warm as well. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jason

 

[tb144050]

I only know about leopard geckos, but the same holds true for anything, I guess. Make sure the room temp does not exceed the "cool temp". For example, Leo's need a coolside-temp in the lower 70's F...so don't heat the room higher than the low 70's.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

My gecko room is connected to the temp in the rest of my house but I keep the door closed and the extra heat coming from the heat tape usually warms the room to 5-10 degrees higher than the rest of the house. I would make sure the room is insulated well (this will help to keep it both warm and cool) and use a room heater that has a good built in thermostat.

 

[cstone]

If the room is cooler than you need, the most efficient way would probably be an oil filled radiator style heater. Just make sure you get one with a digital thermostat on it. The smallest one you can find will probably be more than enough for that size room. They can be found at most big box stores as well as home improvement stores or you can find them online. Just be careful if you also have forced air in that room if it is connected to a thermostat thats in another room as the oil heater will keep the room at the proper temperature and then the furnace will kick on and heat the room even more since the central thermostat has no way of measuring the temperature in that room.

Edit* one more thing. Place the heater in the farthest corner of the room from your reptiles because they actually raise the temp around them above what you set the thermostat to in order to heat the entire room. So if you set the thermostat to 75°F the air near the heater may actually reach 80-85°F which is too warm for our little friends on the cold side.