HOT HOT HOTT!!!

[Epic]

I'm sure we'll be seeing more of these threads with the warmer months coming up, sorry to add to them!

For those of you who don't have time to read it all, scroll down to the bold.

Put on your thinking caps, this one's difficult!

I have a unique situation. My room gets RIDICULOUSLY hot in the summer. My room will fluctuate between 80-90 degrees! This will be my first full summer with my beardie. My room is upstairs, facing south(so the sun hits my wall all day), and has only one window. I do have a ceiling fan, a window fan, and an oscillating fan, but they just moves around the warm air. Them temps in the enclosure at the end of last summer were 85-95. Luckily it was only a week until it cooled down. When the temps were that high, I was using an aquarium with a screen top. Lots of ventialtion. Now I have a Crossfire enclosure. Great home, horrible ventialtion. I'm worried it will be EVEN hotter in his new viv.

Any ideas of getting the temps reasonable? The main issue is the temp in my room. I've gotta get that down to get the viv's temps down. The A/C in my house doesn't reach/work in my room. I think a portable A/C is out of the question. When I run my heater when the dragons lights are on, the breaker for my room goes out! The heater runs on 1000 watts on low, and 1500 on high. Is there a way I can plug in an A/C so that if it draws too much energy it will shut itself off, and not everything else in the room? Any other ways of lowering the temp?

Nitty Gritty:
Temp in room during summer gets between 80-90 degrees
Temp in viv is 85-92 degrees
Window fan, ceiling fan, and an oscillating fan don't help much
House A/C doesn't work in my room
Portable A/C may not work because it will shut off the breaker with the dragons lights on. Is there a way around the A/C messing everything else up if the breaker gets overloaded?

Thanks! And if all else fails, anyone renting a room in North County? lol. It just may come down to that.

 

[SoapDish]

a couple of ideas:
place a fan right in front of the vivs vents so that it blows away from it. That should help to pull the "hot" air out

If you have the freezer space freeze a few bottles mostly full of water. Put one or more on one end of the viv, perhaps on a towel to collect the condensation, and swap them out as they melt.

 

[beardlover]

I
Nitty Gritty:
Temp in room during summer gets between 80-90 degrees
Temp in viv is 85-92 degrees
Window fan, ceiling fan, and an oscillating fan don't help much
House A/C doesn't work in my room
Portable A/C may not work because it will shut off the breaker with the dragons lights on. Is there a way around the A/C messing everything else up if the breaker gets overloaded?

Thanks! And if all else fails, anyone renting a room in North County? lol. It just may come down to that.

Temps in viv 85-92....is this the current temps, or the summer time temps? Because these temps aren't a problem, your basking temps should be higher then 92 and 85 is ok for the cool side of the tank.

 

[Epic]

I
Nitty Gritty:
Temp in room during summer gets between 80-90 degrees
Temp in viv is 85-92 degrees
Window fan, ceiling fan, and an oscillating fan don't help much
House A/C doesn't work in my room
Portable A/C may not work because it will shut off the breaker with the dragons lights on. Is there a way around the A/C messing everything else up if the breaker gets overloaded?

Thanks! And if all else fails, anyone renting a room in North County? lol. It just may come down to that.

Temps in viv 85-92....is this the current temps, or the summer time temps? Because these temps aren't a problem, your basking temps should be higher then 92 and 85 is ok for the cool side of the tank.

Sorry, I should have made it more clear. The current temps are fine, it's just when it's really hot out in some of the summer days. 85-92 is on the 'cool' side of the tank, even with the basking light off.

I was thinking about putting waterbottles with frozen water in there during the day. I'm at work from 9-5, so I can't replace them during the day :/

I tried the fan thing, pulling air away from the viv. That didn't help at all. I too thought it would help some. I think my only options are testing a portable A/C in my room, or moving out. I can't stand sitting at work with a nice A/C knowing my Houdini is sweating bricks at home.

 

[fresnowitte]

Nitty Gritty:
Temp in room during summer gets between 80-90 degrees
Temp in viv is 85-92 degrees I'm assuming you mean the ambient temp not basking right?

I live in an old farmhouse that doesn't have central heat an air just wall shakers an a woodburning stove. I live in California where many of the days during the Summer are over 110* outside making my indoor temps the same as yours 80* to 90*. My cool end of the viv's at this time would be between 85* and 90*....in the wild on hot days they are going to experience the same type of temps so I don't see as it is a problem as long as your basking temps stay between 100* and 110*. During this time keep in mind that your beardie will require more hydration so long baths do wonders as well as cools them down. I also mist mine during the really hot months I don't mist them in their viv's as I worry about the humidity levels and they could burn if you mist them under a MVB. I also have anywhere from 8 to 10 MVB's going during the hot months as well...which of course does add to the heat. On very hot days when I'm unable to keep my basking temps in a safe range I have shut them off between the hours of 3pm to 5 pm...but only needed to do this on a couple of days when it was like 116* outside. I really like the condo's but the heat during Summer and the ventilation has been what has kept me from switching from the standard open top viv.

I want to ask you what type, brand, and wattage UVB and basking bulbs are you using?

Also you asked about how you could make it so the air conditioner or cooler doesn't kick off your breaker with everything else running? Have you thought of putting the air conditioner on a isolated curcuit? Meaning its own breaker. Or possible running it thru a surge protector? Just a thought.

a couple of ideas:
If you have the freezer space freeze a few bottles mostly full of water. Put one or more on one end of the viv, perhaps on a towel to collect the condensation, and swap them out as they melt.

Hmm....might raise the humidity to much sense it so hot. :dontknow: Have you tried this? Did it cause the humidity to come up?

 

[beardlover]

Can you put a thick, dark blanket or something over the window to help keep heat out?

 

[sunkist]

What about the frozen bottle idea in front of one of the fans pointed directly at the vent of the viv? Sooo it's blowing cold air in there?? Just thought.

 

[Epic]

Thank you everyone for your replies...

Barbara:
I'm using a powersun 100 watt MVB, and I have a 36" fluorescent light tube. The tube doesn't give off any heat. I can't run the A/C to a different breaker... or can I? LOL. I'm renting a room, so anything I do has to be easy and reversable. Do you think a surge protector would work? That sounds too easy. I haven't tried the waterbottle thing, but good call on the humidity. End of last summer there was one week where it was 100+ outside. During that time I soaked him daily and misted him daily. I figured he'd be alright for a week or so with the heat, I'm just worried if it happens for weekS at a time. And yes, those temps were the ambient temp, not the basking temp.

Beardlover:
I was also thinking about using a dark panel over the window, I was just worried that I may trap whatever heats makes it's way in there.

Sunkist:
Last year I actually put a bucket of ice in front of the window fan. It felt good when you were inches away from the fan. 12" away and it feels normal. :/

Everyone has great ideas so far. I think it's coming down to how to run an A/C without turning off everything in my room. Hmmmm....

Thanks a million everyone!!!

 

[SoapDish]

I haven't tried the water bottle trick with the lizards since I live in N. Wisconsin and can never turn off their heater since it doesn't get THAT warm :wink: Another thing you could do is leave their lights off during the day when it's hot and turn them on at night when it's cooler. You might also be able to run the ac with viv's lights off. I think that as long as you don't heat the tank they should be fine since the temp increase will be gradual as summer arrives. I mean they are native to the desserts of Australia which gets hotter than Cali.

 

[serramagk]

Have you considered building a basic swamp cooler? I'm not sure what area you live in but it can make a dramatic difference. According to the US Dept of energy they can drop the temps 15-20 degrees on average but can be as much as 40.

Here's a great link for more info: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/swampcoolerinstall

You can purchase a small one for about $90.00 or you could build your own. At it's most basic fill a pan with clean water, hang a towel from a hanger and put one end in the water (the towel is now acting like a wick) Now behind the towel put a fan that will blow the cool air into the room. Im sure there are much much better ways to build one as I said this is in it's most basic form.