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Heating question for cold ambient environment

Q

queensrook

Lurking Learner
Hello, heating question! I live in the pacific northwest where it's quite cold, and none of the rooms in my available living space get above 70 on their own, except maybe during rare summer days. The more usual ambient temperature is somewhere in the 60's, especially at night.

Poising hypotheticals here, since I don't have a snake yet and this is information-gathering: Assuming a yearling-to-adult sized animal in an appropriately sized tank, would a heat mat be able to combat this temperature level and keep the tank comfortable? Would I need to heat the whole length of the tank to maintain the environment, or would the temperature difference be negligible between a half-tank mat and an unheated side? (am I making sense?)

I worry that the mat would be constantly struggling, or overheat and burn the surface under the tank trying to keep it at temperature, or that it would fail entirely and never get the tank warm enough and thus cause sickness. I know my fishtank heater is constantly kicking on and off to keep it at 78*, and that's for water temp.
 
You'll want to put your heat mat on a thermostat set to about 87 degrees. Your ambient temps being in the high 60s-low 70s is a bit cool, but as long as your snake has access to the correct temperature for digestion, your cool ambient temps will be fine.
 
The PNW certain has it's challenges, too open of an environment is quite cool and too closed is high humidity. I currently utilize a rack system in a small room where the ambient temp is higher than the rest of the house.

I find that when I have a snake in a tank with a mesh lid, all I have to do is drape a towel over part of the lid to get the ambient temp that I am looking for. Typically I only needed to do this at night, and not at all in the summer. Play with configurations for a week or so before you get your snake to make sure you have everything set just right.

Good luck!

-Tonya
 
@Tonya Such a mood. I'm limited on space options too, I've only got two rooms to use for a setup and one of them is half-underground and north-facing. Like, Daylight? What is this mysterious substance you speak of? Seems sus.

I almost wonder if it would be useful to run two heat mats in this situation - one on the 'cooler' side at a lower but still warm temp, to keep ambient temps comfortably in the 70s, and the other at the 'warmer' side to provide digestible temps. Though that would double the likelihood of an overheat incident, so maybe not advisable.
 
Olivia has it right - one side is all you probably should have. It's been a bit since I've used a tank set up. I think once you have it set up, you'll know more about what you may need to do.

Good luck!

-Tonya
 
Did an experiment today since it was so nice out; high for today per weather app was 75; space heaters turned off for 24 hours, and result: bedroom is 68 degrees and living room is 72. nyeh. sneks would be cold.
 
I got a humidity/temperature sensor for my room to better monitor the conditions prior to snakekeeping. So far I've learned that my room is about 4 degrees cooler than the wall thermostat says it is, being 66* when it said 68*, and the ambient humidity today is about 64%. Turned on my heater to 70* to see how it affects the numbers. at least I won't have to worry about moisture levels too much.
 
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