Heat cable

[4PY]

Hi im wanting to build a rack for royal pythons, and im wanting to use heat cable instead of heat mats cause im only wanting to use one thermostat on it i thought that would be better than running like 1 thermostat on every mat, but im wanting to know ive never used heat cable before how will i do it and how can i set it up, i mean my rack is preety high about
70 inches high 30 inches wide and 20 inches deep, so what size heat cable do you rekon i need, will have to go on my shelves or wont it or on the back, i dont really no where to put it so can you help please
Thanks
4PY

[oakelm]

Your best bet is to get a ball of string or wool or something then from the floor where the power socket will be work your way up, each shelf needs 2 -3 lines of cable running across the back where a heat strip would be. I space mine about 5cm apart so 2 lines for smaller tub and 3 lines for bigger tubs, even 4 or 5 if using really big rubs. If you do it with string you can measure it and get exactly what you need, so no guess work involved. Hope that all makes sense.