wohnzimmer farbe warm
welcome to a new episode of reptiltv technik. today's topic is heat panels. in episode 90 we tested terrarium heating systems and discovered that heat panels are really great. you can produce better heating with a lower wattage than with a ceramics radiator. the energy output of a heat panel is incomparably better. originally heat panels were produced for the poultry industry. there, they are used to keep the young birds warm. they are set up like this and the birds creep underneath to find the warmth.
we have borrowed the idea for terraria. we have a selection of four different sizes. the smallest is 15 watts, then we have 25, 40 and finally 62 watts. with the wattage in mind, we are looking at heat panels with lower ratings. i am not interested in heat panels with 100 or 150 watts, simply because they get too hot the good thing about a heat panel is that no protective cage is needed. the heat panel heats the terrarium without any risk that the snakes get burned. now i want to show you this.
we started heating the bottom panel with 62 watts when we began filming and it has been switched on for several hours, i'd say for three to four hours if i now measure the surface temperature, it shows a surface temperature of 40 degrees. i can measure various points on the heat panel, but that won't change anything. in the very centre 42 degrees the hottest temperature i am measuring is 45 degrees.
it is different in a terrarium, where the heat escapes. in the terrarium the panel can easily go up to 50 degrees that is still a temperature that will not burn any animal. the next even better effect - if i now measure under here the silver side of the panel is the side which radiates heat into the terrarium. the black side is the side i glue to the ceiling or screw, or whatever. if i measure the black side, i find 24.4 degrees.
i can also measure several points on this side. in the centre of the panel it is 26 degrees. that is not even really lukewarm. on the other hand, if i screw it somewhere at the top, i do not run the risk that it burns my terrarium ceiling or that the heat accumulates. or, depending on where i install the panel, a crack appears and the snake lies on top of the panel, it is still not hot enough for the snake to burn itself.
in my opinion this is a perfect heat source. it is best to regulate the whole system with a thermostat. here we have the control pro. it is a dimming thermostat, real state-of-the-art technology. there are also simpler models, they cost 10 euros less, but they do the same job. if the panel is regulated by a thermostat, you can enter day and night temperatures and then you have the perfect situation. or you can regulate for each animal. pythons, for example like permanent heat. you can leave it on day and night.
the additional heat that you possibly need during the day can be produced by a spotlight and you can then leave the panel switched on round the clock. we'll now show you how to install it in the terrarium. we have done a little preparation in advance for one thing, i have alex here to help me again. our dispatch warehouse manager he is helping me with screwing it in. alex is a technical genius. he can do anything i can't do.
here we have the panel. i have left it plugged in, because i want to find out later how warm it makes the terrarium. we left it plugged in so as not to waste time. in this way we can use the heat. a brief look at the principle of the panel. here are mountings or clamps with feet. i can clamp these at different depths. or, depending on how high i want to attach it at the top,
i can push them further in and then clamp them here securely. with a wood terrarium i just screw the feet to the wood. screw the four feet and then clamp securely with the clamps. with a glass terrarium it is obviously not easy to screw things. here i can use the ventilation grill at the back. i can screw two feet securely to the ventilation grill. unfortunately this won't work for the other two, so we have to attach the panel with glue. we always use terrafix, a non-toxic glue. in this way we can glue it to the ceiling, which what we're doing here.
alex, i’ll hand the whole thing over to you now. the screws are always supplied with it of course. there are always four feet and four screws in a set as standard. you can decide how you want to attach it. either simply glue it. that is the easiest way. the disadvantage: you glue it on and it is stuck there for ever. if you screw it on, you can take it down again, if you need to, so both methods have advantages and disadvantages.
just a little insider hint yes, you get on with gluing it there, alex when you have secured it with silicon or glue and you want to take it off again, it is almost impossible with a knife. dental floss is perfect for the job. you take a long piece of dental floss, thread it in behind and then you can almost saw away the glue with the dental floss, if you need to remove it at any time. how are we getting on, alex? everything glued? no, screws at the back and we're gluing at the front
now we are putting six dots like this. how many are you doing? six. ok, fine so, at the back we are screwing two feet on the ventilation grill securely and at the front we put five dots of glue. then, here we have a clamp, which we can use to clamp it securely. shall i help you to support it? yes towards the side a little. in your place i would never completely ... just a second, i've got it i would never stick the panel right in the centre. you always have a temperature gradient in the terrarium,
if you position it towards the side; this gives you a warmer and a cooler place. you can slide it towards the back a little. yes, that's it yes, fine we are doing this we are doing all this with a warm panel this actually provides good proof that it will not burn you. i must admit that my fingers are becoming warm, they are becoming rather hot, but not to the extent that i am burning my fingertips.
ok, now it is securely fixed by the two screws at the back. now we can secure it at the front with pliers. how many do you have? two? if you don't have pliers, simply place something underneath or clamp something between - a roll of kitchen paper, for example, just to make sure that it is pressed together firmly at the top. you now need to leave it to dry for two or three hours and then the panel is securely attached. we now put in the sliding glass panes
and leave it for one or two hours what is its temperature now? i want to show you that this panel is now 62 watts. in my experience this is just right for this 1 metre terrarium more specifically, it is generous and is best regulated with a thermostat. of course, you must not underestimate the energy requirement. i heat my flat to 22 degrees and i want 30 degrees in the terrarium, so i have to add energy, which means these 62 watts here. that is what i need to heat a terrarium or a volume of this size.
if my terrarium is bigger, 1.2 or 1.5 metres, then i install two panels side by side. in my opinion a panel like this is not excessively expensive, a panel costs 50 to 60 euros. or, depending on size, from 30 euros i prefer to put two or three panels in a terrarium and this spreads the heat more laterally than a huge 150 watt panel, which is possibly too hot overall. what i also want to show you is that now you feel none of the heat from here on the top. here it is now 23 degrees,
but even after several hours the cover will still not heat up excessively. perfect heating without it becoming terribly hot at the top. we have now set up the trial and left it to stand for a day. now we measure the temperature at the top. the temperature on the heat panel is 27 degrees. it is good that the heat panel is giving off practically no heat on the top. this is just lukewarm up here that is perfect. let's measure below. the temperature in the terrarium is now 32.3 degrees
that is the temperature just below the panel. the perfect temperature it is difficult to measure here in the corner. there is no contact point because of the glass for the infra-red thermometer to read. we should have installed a substrate, then we could have measured more accurately. we'll use this polystyrene a good 30 to 31 degrees if i measure at the top the temperature is naturally much higher the heat panel itself is 53 degrees
even at 53 degrees, if i touch it, it is hot, but i don't burn my fingers what i want to show you with this is that this 62 watt heat panel heats this 1 meter terrarium perfectly. you can also see that there is definitely no insulation around it. here it is 21 or 22 degrees and the door is always opening, so it is rather cooler in this room than elsewhere, probably 21 degrees. in the terrarium it is a good 30 degrees. the temperature here is similar to the flat. if you were to insulate the terrarium, with cork on two or three sides,
then it will probably become too hot. or if there is straw in it, that will hold the heat at the bottom. then it will get too hot with the panel or a lamp. i would say that even with the perfect panel, you must use a thermostat to regulate the temperature. if you want to leave it running day and night and taking the insulation and the lamp into account, then the 40 watt heat panel would be just right for the size of the terrarium. i want to give you a feel for the wattages needed in comparison to the terrarium if we take a 1 metre high terrarium, let's say 80 cm high, then the volume is greater and the 62 watt panel is definitely fine.
with an even larger terrarium we’re getting into the range, where we need to install two panels.