Couple of Heating Questions (4x2x2 viv)

Hey guys/girls. I have a few questions about heating. I have put together a 4x2x2 viv from birch plywood. I've been doing some reading and saw that some people use thermostats for their beardies. Will one of these be necessary for my viv if my house itself is always at a constant temperature, or is that irrelevant...? :?

Also, when it comes to thermometers (I plan on having at least two), where should the probes be? I know that at least one should be on the cool side (along the wall, a couple of inches from the ground) and that one should be on/near the basking site. I'm unsure if the probe needs to be ON the basking site (on the branch, or whatever I will be using for that) or hanging in the air near the basking site.

When it comes to vents, I've read that having one or two near the top/back of the hot end and one or two near the bottom of the cool end is best.. Is this good or bad?

I wouldn't use a thermostat because I wouldn't want it shutting off the basking light. If the temps in the house are relatively constant you may want to put it on a dimmer so you can fine tune the output now and then but you probably won't need to tweak it much once you have the correct wattage for proper temps.

You'll want the temp probes to pick up the surface temperatures so I'd put one right on the surface of the basking site and put the other on the floor or on a piece of furniture on the cool side so you can get an idea of what your gradient is. You can add a third thermometer to pick up ambient air temps but it's not really necessary in my opinion as long as you have accurate readings from the basking spot and cool end.

I've seen the vents in a lot of different configurations. Some have them in a row along the back. Some have two on each side. As long as you have at least one on the sides and maybe a few along the back it should be fine. I haven't built my own enclosure but use the crossfire as a model/standard https://beardies.dreamwidth.org/2145.html

Seems I used the wrong wording. In my head I did mean to say dimmer, but I said thermo stat! :lol: Are there any dimmers you would recommend? I was looking at Habistat Dimmers, but they seem to only be available in the UK.. And if I were to use a dimmer, I'm not sure which end to put that probe in.. I've read that they work both in the cool end, and the warm end :?

I've heard of people using lamp dimmers from the hardware store on the basking lights. Just plug the light into it and adjust as needed. There are other more advanced systems available but I don't know much about them. I didn't have anything more advanced in my tank than an outlet timer for the lights.

Are there any outlet timers you would suggest?

I use the 3 prong (grounded) dual outlet analog one from Lowe's and it does the job.

It sounds like you are thinking of a dimming thermostat which is a good safety device should something happen to change the general temps in the home. A dimming stat will control the power to the lamp to keep below a set temperature. So if say the air conditioning goes out, your cage won't over heat. In the U.S. the only brands I know of right now are the herpstat and the ecozone controllers. The herpstat are more affordable but start around 100$. They have nice features though, like dusk/dawn simulation and a built in timer. On/off stats are significantly cheaper but not suitable for lights. If you get a stat where you out the probe may depend on the max temp of the device. I keep the probe for my dragon on the cool side so the low temp doesn't over heat and for my snake it's on the warm side to control his basking site.

An inline dinner/rheostat is a power control device, not a safety device. They will not react to temperatures at all. They are fine for adjusting/fine tuning the temps just don't expect the same function from them

For vents having the high ones at the warm end and low ones on the cool end are most effective at good cross flow of air. The warm air rises up and out and cool air gets sucked in from the other side. I have a crossfire and the vents are both at the top, it doesn't seem to be a big deal though.