Lighting and Vent options... please help/ buying very soon

[Bushmaster11B]

I'm going to buy some lights and fixtures tomorrow afternoon and thought you could help me choose what to buy before I actually do. I thought I seen you talk about using halogen bulbs for heating/lighting (basking light). And I was looking at some low profile track lights at Home Depot and only found 50 Watt and 75 Watt Halogen low profile fixtures that were 5 inches or shorter for height. How ever, I could mount the rail as close to the top part of the wall since all the Rail Heads move 360 degrees and flex over 180 degrees, making it easy to adjust anywhere in my enclosure. I want to use a Light Rail since my 60" Flatscreen TV will be sitting on top of the enclosure (the enclosure was an entertainment center table). I'm not worried about weight because the Enclosure has 3/4 inch solid oak for walls and top. And I really did not want to drill an 8" hole on top for a heat clamp lamp fixture. My Enclosure is 4 ft wide x 20 inches deep and 20 inches tall with sealed sliding windows in the front. I also need to know what size of vents, how many and where I should install them after you help me select the lights. I'm buying a separate 18" Tube UVB (The straight one) with hood that I will be mounting on the ceiling. Can you tell me what wattage to buy with that too? The one I'm looking at is at Petco for $41. If you think that's too much, please direct me to a cheaper option. I'm not that rich.... yet. We disable Vets don't get paid much. Anyhow, here are the pics and prices with some info:

2 Ft Light Rail- $12
Pigtails are usually $10-$15

Juno 75W 5"tall- $15

Designer Choice 50W 4 1/2" tall- $10

Designer Choice Low Voltage 50W 5"- $14

Hampton Bay 75W 5" (but can be bent to modify height) - $10

Here are some examples of options I have. If you have any better ideas, please let me know. And if I need more wattage, let me know what wattage to get, if I can use more than 1 for basking area and how many would do the trick. I am installing a CHE on a separate fixture on a separate circuit with Thermostat for night time heating in case the enclosure drops below 70-75 degrees (my house stays at 65 degrees year long with A/C, even if there is snow). Thank you for your help again.​

 

[Germ]

None of the Pics showed up .

Yes, I have used 100% full strength Halogen Flood Bulbs (Not Halogena or energy savers, I use Philips Brand from Home Depot) for over a decade & have found them to be the best heat bulb for me & mine. Many others on the Forum here, have tried them since, with very positive results. More heat per watt, brighter & whiter light, superb heat penetration/radiation into the enclosure. If using Halogen bulbs in a track fixture mounted inside, 2x50W or a 75W should do the job quite nicely, but am unsure if you will be able to have safe distances between Bulb & dragon & still have the basking spot close enough to the UVB bulb mounted to the top, to be effective in a 20" tall enclosure. That being said, we all have to play with bulb types, wattages of bulbs & distances to the basking spot to suit our particular enclosure setups. There are so many variables that come into play, like ambient room temps, screen or no screen, type of fixture, setup layout, etc, etc. What Wattage & type of bulb that will work very well for me & mine, may not do the job or be overkill for you & yours. Heat bulbs & distances are trial & error for each individual setup. Having non height adjustable fixtures will make getting the temps right more difficult, more trial & error, along with experimenting with different height basking spots, until you get it right.

As far as venting goes, 4 or 5, 2"-3" circular vents high along the back top & one low on each side should provide adequate ventilation & air flow.

Keeping the night ambient enclosure temps with a CHE & Thermostat, so it does not drop any lower than your regular ambient room temps of 65F is all that is needed. BDs should be allowed to cool at night, slows their metabolism down for a good night's sleep. These are Desert/Scrubland creatures, night temps naturally drop drastically in the desert areas of their natural habitat.

An 18" 10.0 (10%) UVB tube Bulb is generally around the 15W area (24" is 18-20W). I would recommend using the tried & true ZooMed Repti-Sun 10.0 or Exo Terra Repti-Glo 10.0 tubes. I am not a fan of the Zilla Desert 50 series bulbs or much of their other products, for that matter.

Good Luck

 

[Bushmaster11B]

I have a 120V 18" fixture already from a good black light tube fixture. I'm buying the Exo-Terra Reptiglow 10.0 T8 series from my friends Saltwater/Reptile Shop. He is cutting me a dealer cost for supplies so I can get them for under $20. The halogens I picked out had 3 heads that "can" support 100W bulbs each. It comes with 3 50W bulbs. So I will first try 2 50W bulbs and if I need more heat, I will buy 1 75W or 1 100W to go along with the over 50W. I'm only using 2 out of 3 bulbs if not just 1 bulb. Should I install the fixture with 2 50W bulbs and check heat temps on basking area before drilling out too many recirculation vents while building this? Just wondering how hot these bulbs get.
And I couldn't help but notice the bulbs that came with the fixture has the writing "UV Filter-001". I'm pretty sure it means it blocks the UV exposure. So my next question is: Will my Exo-Terra Reptiglow 10.0 T8 tube bulb provide enough UV/UVB radiation exposure for my BD? I plan on suspending it 5 inches from the ceiling giving a floor distance of 15" and about 10 inches from top of basking area.... Oh, I'm not a fan of Zilla NOTHING either. When I had Zilla lights to start off many many years with my rare corn snake, he got burnt several times. And it melted my lamp hood plastic parts.

 

[Bushmaster11B]

I also found some vents on HomeDepot.com, the store had a poor selection. The rectangle ones (2"x12" and 4"x12") were about $4-5 each and the Circular (4") ones were $2 and they came with screens. Let me know if this is what you was refering to on the circular ones:

This one has adjustable shutters which could help regulate heat.....

Just a normal return vent

4 inches and has built in mesh to block "Houdini Crix"
If you tell me the 4 inch circular like I'm thinking you will... I'm buying them tonight online.

 

[Germ]

I would likely go with the circular ones as you guessed, seeing as they are 4", I would use 3-4 across the back at the top & one low on the cool side, but it would be a really good idea to check your temps before installing too many, as you mentioned. It's going to be trial & error until you get it right, similar to getting the right Bulbs & distances.You could always tape or other wise block part of the lower one off, as needed, if the draw of your quite cool ambient room temps (65F) is too great ...

I have never used that type of bulb with the prong socket, so have absolutely no idea how much heat they put out. I have always used the medium based, screw in sockets & bulbs, the same as a regular light bulb screws into. This would also be a better choice, so you could rewire one of the sockets separately, to hold a CHE on a thermostat or dimmer. If I was to use a track lighting system, I would use an actual bar type, rather than a circular configuration. Personally, I would use regular household porcelain light sockets screwed to the top, one positioned to cover the basking spot, centered on & allowing room for the UVB fixture, more as needed for the CHE & possibly one for ambient light (Compact fluorescent) or supplemental heat, if needed, on the cool side.

The 18" 10.0 UVB bulb will do the job. Be sure that the UVB fixture & heat bulb are centered on each other. The strongest UVB is emitted from the center areas of a tube, very little is emitted off of the ends. The UV filter protection mentioned, would be only to protect from any harmful UV (to us) emitted from the halogen itself, would not affect what is emitted from the UVB tube.

Anyway, that is what I would do, there are many different roads to arrive at the same destination .

Good Luck

 

[Bushmaster11B]

Thanks Germ, you have really increased my confidence by giving be insight on vents and lights. I will update this thread with my results in a week when my vents arrive.

 

[Bushmaster11B]

After testing the temp again and even with 2 bulbs, temps still rose to 120 degrees F on the floor. This vent should really help on the hot side. It is a 2x16" Vent with adjustable louver. Going to seal it with screen and caulking in a day or two.

View attachment 5408

 

[Bushmaster11B]

110-112 on top of the drift wood (it's being used for basking heat measurements). 80-82 on cool side floor temp. No substrate yet. Going to use news paper until he is 10". I'm sure the heat will need to be adjusted in the future when I add sand.

 

[Bushmaster11B]

Just to show enclosure size with 60" plasma TV on top. Basking drift wood temp is about 109-112 given peak point. I'm using all 3 50w halogens and I'm getting 80 degrees on the cool side. My 2x16 vent with louver is 3/4 shut for temp control. I don't have a second vent. Do I need one?

 

[Bushmaster11B]

Here are some thermal pics I took of the enclosure on full blast and the Triple Halo Lights. Note the UV tube bulb is not that hot.

 

[Bushmaster11B]

1 more day before I can't do any building (vacation trip). So, do I need that 2nd vent or not? I'm not having any temp control problems. I have 3 spare 2" mesh screened circular vents and they are fixed directional vents at that. I ended up using only 2 halogen 50w Bulbs... 1 for the center heat of the enclosure and 1 for the basking spot. I had to point one in the center due to raising the cool side temps up, since this is a slightly larger enclosure. Plus it gave the other side more ambient light. No, that is not smoke on the drift wood on the right. The window is dirty, sorry

 

[Bushmaster11B]

So... I'm taking it that my 1 vent is enough air flow? I got a like.....

 

[Germ]

Personally, I would like to have an intake vent, but ... if your doors are not air-tight & will allow a little air draw from there & setup this way you are getting the heat needed, you should be good to go.

Otherwise, I would put a small intake vent, high on the opposite (Cool) side, as with the rising hot air causing the flow, the big one on the hot side would be the exhaust. Putting the intake vent up high will allow fresh air in, but shouldn't drastically change the temps that you have now.