Heat Cable/Wire... Whats the crack?

[jonnyboy]

Im buying/building a rack for my royals and ive bought 6 long heatmats

im planning on having 12 x 32lr rubs, 6 tubs high and 2 tubs wide.

should i get myself a huge wire instead of all the mats? would this use less electricity?

just after opinions really!

[evilchild]

it may work out easier to heat and regulate the temp with the wire stuff at the back. not used it my self, but from what i here that's how a lot of people heat a larger collection.

[Jim_Fear]

When you say 'at the back' do you mean running it vertically? I only ask as I wouldn't think that would be very efficient as the heat wouldn't rise through the rub. I'm not singling you out here to answer my question as you're not the first person to suggest that, I currently don't have any plans to build a stack myself but I'm interested in peoples results

[jonnyboy]

i thought about putting one on the back, but it wouldnt het it as good would it?

anybody else used them?

[Meko]

they're used quite a lot in tub racks.
cut 2 channels in the bottom shelves and sink the cable in then tape down with heat resistant tape. Just runs off the 1 stat and works pretty well apparently.. although i had endless problems as i tried to tape it onto the shelf and couldn't cut a channel as the shelves were fitted.

[jonnyboy]

do they need to be sunk into wood? or can they just be taped onto the shelf?

[Meko]

my uncle has his sunk and gets perfect temperatures.
i had mine taped to the top of the shelves and now its on the classifieds.

[Sharpy6272]

Hi I use it in my rack to create the ambient temperature then have a mat on the top of the shelf linked to the same stat. I only have both because my room is quite cold. You could use it the under heat source by routing out a groove in the shelf tho.

The only stuff I could get in the UK is the Zoo Med heat cable on ebay the lengths go up to 12m but just to warn you two of those meters is not heated.

Hope that helps!

[jonnyboy]

i will just go for heatmats i think, the room is quite warm so ambient temperature isnt a problem

thanks a lot for all your help!

[crow]

A 12m heat cable only uses 100w (they now do a 16m one by the way).
Check the wattage on your heat mats as six large mats may exceed the 300w that a standard stat will take.