Is a thermostat necassary?

I'm going to have a 75w exo terra lamp, and a 60w CHE. Is a thermostat necessary? I'm on a bit of a tight budget, but I do have an infrared as my thermometer.

Could I just have a pulse thermostat for the CHE maybe? They're way more affordable and available than the dimmer :?

I've never used a thermostat of any kind in the nearly 20 years i've raised dragons. It's definitely not a necessity, but it can be helpful in certain situations.

I typically just find a wattage that works for me, and that's that. No need to dim.

But if you want to use one on your CHE, you can use an on/off instead of a dimming. I'm not 100% sure if that would shorten the life the of the CHE, but they are typically pretty cheap anyways.

-Brandon

claudiusx":19dq47dt said:

I've never used a thermostat of any kind in the nearly 20 years i've raised dragons. It's definitely not a necessity, but it can be helpful in certain situations.

I typically just find a wattage that works for me, and that's that. No need to dim.

But if you want to use one on your CHE, you can use an on/off instead of a dimming. I'm not 100% sure if that would shorten the life the of the CHE, but they are typically pretty cheap anyways.

-Brandon

Click to expand...

I'm not entirely sure using a simple switching thermostat with a CHE is good for the longevity of the CHE.
Each cycle will cause it to expand and contract and there's the issue of the different expansion rates of the metal components and the ceramic components.
Ceramics do not cope well with rapid large temperature cycles , this causes the build up of stresses in the ceramic and will result in an increased likelihood of "spalling" concentrated in small imperfections in the ceramic lattice and at small internal and internal surface imperfections ( cracks for poor annealing in manufacture ).

I think you are better off using either a simple inline domestic table lamp style rheostat (dimmer) and trial and error to get the temperature right (more or less) , or if you want to set the monitored temperature and forget, use a dimming style thermostat (in a similar manner as you would for a basking globe).
The result will be less cycling in the state of the CHE and tighter temperature control and a lot less bother overall.
Beauty with a dimming style thermostat is you can leave the CHE + dimming thermostat on 24/7 365/y and it will respond automatically to the ambient temperature and the heat input from the basking globe (MVB) during the daytime ( subsidizing the basking globe thermal output if needed in winter , and dimming down to near zero or zero heat output in summer) and automatically providing extra heat overnight if needed in winter.

Thanks a lot guys!

I only use simple switching thermostats on my heatpads. All my skinks and dragons have either a 5W or 7W heatpad under tiles in their timber tanks and rearing tubs.

Switching thermostats I use are rated to a max of 38 degC , the heatpads are rated to max temps of 42 degC ( if I can believe the seller's info ).
I set the skinks' ( eastern bluetongues and eastern water skinks ) heatpads to 32 degC.
I set the bearded dragons' heatpads to 36 degC.
If the heatpad fails :
* failure mode 1 ( pad short circuit ==> potential overheat) the thermostat will prevent it from overheating by simply cutting current to the heatpad.
* failure mode 2 ( pad open circuit ==> heatpad stops heating ), the heatpad will regard circuit as is nothing is plugged in.
if the thermostat fails :
* failure mode 3 ( t/stat temperature control failure if it's chip doesn't default to open circuit) the heatpad acts like no t/stat in circuit and it's internal temperature limiting circuit will prevent it from overheating ( my heatpads have a simple in line rheostat on their powercables that I've preset to keep my temperatures under the aim + 1 degC )
* failure mode 4 ( t/stat open circuit (dies) ==> heatpad stops heating ), the heatpad will regard circuit as is no power supply.

In over 10 years, I've never had a one of my ebay switching thermostats fail electronically, only failure I've had was a mechanical failure ( dropped and broke the inbuilt power socket ).

This style of thermostat works fine with heatpads.

I don't need a CHE at night in any of my tanks in my climate , tropical coastal as it never gets colder than 18 degC in my house even on the coldest winter night. Coldest it's ever been here overnight in my living memory is 6 degC outside temperature , we've never had a frost..

If I were in a colder area , or one where frosts are common overnight I'd deploy a CHE in my tanks set up and controlled as shown below :