# heating a reptile shed



## ady365d (Sep 10, 2008)

im currently in the process of converting my shed into a small reptile room its mainly going to house rhac's i am covering all the walls and celing with polystyrene sheets to help insulate it from the cold winter nights and hot summers days so effectivally it will be a massive poly box! any body have any ideas on how to heat it i want to try to maintain around 20 degrees . and i want it thermo stated, and also as cheap as poss to run . its only a tiny shed about 8x5x7high any one have any suggestions or done any thing similar??


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## Bexie (Dec 20, 2007)

i use an oil filled radiator in our reptile "shed" its a 20'x12' and the rep part that is heated is 12'x12', it costs me about £15 a week to heat it, sometimes maybe a bit more dependant on weather, our building is insulated slighter better than most "sheds" and has about £800 worth of insulation in it. so dependant on how well it is insulated will depend on what kind of heating you will need


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## reptiles-ink (Nov 4, 2006)

You could use a large tube heater and run it on a pulse stat to get the ambient temp.


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## ady365d (Sep 10, 2008)

thanks for the ideas guys , whats a tube heater ?

ive been looking at fan heaters but they all around 1.5/2 kw dont know if you can get a stat to run something that high ??


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## reptiles-ink (Nov 4, 2006)

ady365d said:


> thanks for the ideas guys , whats a tube heater ?
> 
> ive been looking at fan heaters but they all around 1.5/2 kw dont know if you can get a stat to run something that high ??


 
Theres 1 here on ebay,theres loads more, I just linked to the 1st 4 foot I found. it's 240w so will easilly run off a pulse stat.


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## ady365d (Sep 10, 2008)

reptiles-ink said:


> Theres 1 here on ebay,theres loads more, I just linked to the 1st 4 foot I found. it's 240w so will easilly run off a pulse stat.


 
cool thanks for that , it doesnt say how may watts its runs at though , i know all of my habistat only go up to 600w i recon they will be more than that??


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## Bexie (Dec 20, 2007)

ady365d said:


> cool thanks for that , it doesnt say how may watts its runs at though , i know all of my habistat only go up to 600w i recon they will be more than that??


it says they are 240w, so easily capable of being used with a pule stat.

fan heaters cost the earth to run! weall heaters are suppsoed to be quite gd though


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## xsmithx2 (Oct 24, 2007)

also i wouldnt get fan heaters as they get really hot and may start a fire in a closed space as i have a rep shed as well, i would personal get a oil filled radiator. as i wouldnt risk with fan heaters as its all wood in the shed as it may start a fire


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## fixitsan (Apr 15, 2008)

ady365d said:


> thanks for the ideas guys , whats a tube heater ?
> 
> ive been looking at fan heaters but they all around 1.5/2 kw dont know if you can get a stat to run something that high ??


I've seen fan heaters rated down to as low as 600W. Once stated properly they switch themselves on and off accordingly so like any pother heating device they are not 'on' all of the time. A very powerful fan heater ought to be able to increase the temperature in the shed more quickly than a mid powered non-circulating heater like a tube heater, and then switch off once the target temperature has been reached.

You need to have a heater which can recover quickly from large 'disturbances', such as someone opening the door on a cold day and losing most of the heat from the inside.

Ideally, it would be better to have a fan heater which had a permanently running fan but which allowed you to connect a dimmer stat to the only the heating element, that would make a very efficient heater which could respond very quickly to large changes.

Fan heaters generally consume more power than radiant heaters when they are sqwitched on, but they are usually switched on less often than a lower power heater is for the same sized room.


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## ady365d (Sep 10, 2008)

oh yer just looked at it again , i thought it said 240v ! good point abot the fan heaters tho the temps would drop rapidly wen the door opens !


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## Lizard Loft (Mar 1, 2008)

Dont mean to hijack the threa, but i am hopefully be going to start making my reptile shed within the next 2 weeks, and was wondering, how do you provide it with electricity, 

Do you have seperate fuse boxes? trip boxes? or is it into the mains of the house with a big extension cable lol


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## tigerpaws (Feb 21, 2009)

i would consider consulting an electrician.. as any works or additional circuits on your house would require a small works cert. and testing.. and if your tailing into your incoming supply for a separate fuse board.. then remember that the supply line to your house will quite happly supply 300/400 amps of unfused power to your finger tips...

but you could run all your lighting and heating requirements from a 10mm twin tailed to a 40a MCB/MRCD


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## Lizard Loft (Mar 1, 2008)

tigerpaws said:


> i would consider consulting an electrician.. as any works or additional circuits on your house would require a small works cert. and testing.. and if your tailing into your incoming supply for a separate fuse board.. then remember that the supply line to your house will quite happly supply 300/400 amps of unfused power to your finger tips...
> 
> but you could run all your lighting and heating requirements from a 10mm twin tailed to a 40a MCB/MRCD


ok thanks mate......... i got most of that except for the last bit, what is a *"10mm twin tailed to a 40a MCB/MRCD"* :blush:


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## Andy_WSM (Feb 1, 2009)

Lizard Loft said:


> ok thanks mate......... i got most of that except for the last bit, what is a *"10mm twin tailed to a 40a MCB/MRCD"* :blush:


You really need to get a sparky in to provide power to outside unless it is already there and you can just plug an extension in.

I was fortunate that the garage is already cabled out from the house and my shed and tort run just plug in to the garage electrics.
I think under Part P now though any new wiring to outdoors has to be certified - which makes the work expensive, but at least you will know it is safe.


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## The Roach Hut (Mar 29, 2008)

ady365d said:


> im currently in the process of converting my shed into a small reptile room its mainly going to house rhac's i am covering all the walls and celing with polystyrene sheets to help insulate it from the cold winter nights and hot summers days so effectivally it will be a massive poly box! any body have any ideas on how to heat it i want to try to maintain around 20 degrees . and i want it thermo stated, and also as cheap as poss to run . its only a tiny shed about 8x5x7high any one have any suggestions or done any thing similar??


 i use an oil filled radiator in my garage


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## pmc83 (Jul 20, 2008)

You're definatly better getting a spark to do it and i would'nt use a 10 mm T&E i'd recommend SWA cable especially if it's going in a trench.
Make sure it's RCD protected as well!
Hope this helps


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## calsmum22 (Sep 30, 2008)

a friend of mine who has a reptile shed put a false floor in it and used the underfloor heating under it like what you would put under tiles in a house and i thought it worked really well.


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## arthur cooke (Jan 22, 2008)

The other week I was on the phone to HSE and they told me that it is perfectly legal to DIY with both gas and electric providing you feel you are competent.

I purpose built a conservatory as a large viv and simply ran some plastic pipe connected to the central heating, a two feet deep trench, with the pipes lagged and then inside a drain pipe and the lot buried, with the continues pipe that you can buy nowadays, it's only 2 connections at each end and with push fits, it's a doddle.

I should say that people should only work with gas and electric if they know what they are doing.

cheers arthur


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## Andy_WSM (Feb 1, 2009)

arthur cooke said:


> I should say that people should only work with gas and electric if they know what they are doing.
> 
> cheers arthur


And in all honesty, if anyone posts on a forum asking "how do I..." then they could not be deemed as confident.


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## Caz (May 24, 2007)

Will only be any good if the polystyrene is at least 80mm think, best backed with foil.

Air to Heat Pumps are the most efficient way of heating. AND they cool in summer.


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## johne.ev (Sep 14, 2008)

Also remember that in the summer sheds get very hot. My garden shed (not used for reps) gets well over a 100f, even with the door open you can't stand in there long.


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## Andy_WSM (Feb 1, 2009)

johne.ev said:


> Also remember that in the summer sheds get very hot. My garden shed (not used for reps) gets well over a 100f, even with the door open you can't stand in there long.


Yes, I have a log cabin in the garden which is my home office and even today, with an outside temp of just 12C it reached over 30C inside the cabin!

It is heavily insulated too. 

I use an A/C unit to heat & cool. In all honesty it needs little in the way of heating in the Winter due to the heat off the computers, but it does need some serious cooling in the Summer!


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