you dont have to have a PP stat on a ceramic, but its much more accurate. a normal stat will heat to 2c either side of your temp setting. so if you set it at 16c it will come on at 14c and then turn off at 18c. while a PP stat will hold the temps at a steady 16c.

i havent ever used aspen with a heat cable so i cant comment on it, but i would suggest trying a heatmat on the roof too. a heat mat and a matstat will not cost much. but be aware that a heat mat doesnt heat the air, just things touching it. ACTUALLY, maybe a small heat cable attached to a matstat run along the roof. cable DOES heat the air. your choice!

if your worried about loosing to much heat through the open roof would'nt it be possible to put some kind of cover over the table at night, that way a small wattage ceramic might just be enough to keep the whole table warm, then remove it in the morning, even something simple like bubble wrap on a wooden frame would work if not all the table then say 3/4 covering the half he sleeps in, as heat rises preventing it escaping would be a lot cheaper, you might even find that a heavy curtain/blanket or towel may do the same job.

I have a similar problem in my tort table and was thinking about using heat cable. Can you recommend any? It's not something I'd heard of until you mentioned it.

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1.1.0 Testudo ibera - Wurtle and Bob
1.1.0 British Short hairs - Maisy and George

Hi and thanks for all of the advice - I also have spoken to the owner of a reptile supply place (and I know he was being honest as didn't try to sell me the most expensive thing!) and as other have said he recommended a small 7w heat mat on the roof of the house overnight, said it would only raise temps between 4-8 degrees depending on how close the aspen bedding was which is perfect as will raise temps to between 14 - 18C as was only 13 quid and I will attach it to my old thermostat - so all in all not as expensive as I thought it was going to be !!

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Denise x

sorry to jump in but I think I'm having a similar problem with night temps so this is a good thread - I quite like the heat cable idea if it warms the air etc as my tort goes and sleeps in different places every night so the heat cable thing would be a better option wouldnt it? Where do you get it from and what stat would you need to run it?

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oh sorry - just read it can be run on a mat stat - so just need to know where to get the cable form please - never seen it in any of my local rep shops so is there an on-line store?

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Heat cable, sorry to run all these ideas down, but its best left for the use in hatchling snake racks and the like. It aint really going to do the job correctly. Best option, as mentioned earlier in the thread is over head ceramic heating. Heat mats and cables - great products but not really what you need for this job.

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I've been using a ceramic heat bulb but I find it isn't heating a big enough area. Would you recommend using several then?

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1.1.0 Testudo ibera - Wurtle and Bob
1.1.0 British Short hairs - Maisy and George

Just wondering though if he is sleeping inside of the house and I only want to raise the temp in there a few degrees wouldn't a heat mat attached inside the roof be appropriate? I thought about a ceramic heater but as this would have to placed outside the house and would heat all areas other that the one he was in it was a bit of overkill as he has his combo uvb / heat lamp for during the day - my deduction / reasoning skills may be way off though and would value your comments.

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Denise x

As with all subjects posted and so many quite rightly passionate tort keepers with their own experiences there will be different preferences and opinions, all interesting and valid.

Re my previous post, I use a 7w heat mat inside sleeping compartment and this works well for me, tort cant sleep touching it, it's cheap to run and maintains gentle overnight background heat circa 18/19 deg C recorded on my min/max thermometer.

Tort's 'bedroom' is melamine with a lid so well enclosed to retain heat and flat to stick heat mat to. A mat could possibly be a problem if you want to stick it to an uneaven or curved surface.

If a mat is designed to radiate heat inside a viv from under a substrate how can it be unsafe to surface mount? As for failures, the UV/Basking bulbs are higher risk in my opinion, much higher temps there.