Heat with wood enclosures

[Pixie]

Hi all,

I'm modifying my terrarium to enclose more snakes by dividing the one big section into 3. I am also starting plans on other enclosures for future snakes.

My biggest question is, what kind of heat source is safe to use in a wood enclosure? If all but the front doors are made out of wood, can heat pads be used safely? I've heard of heat tape and looked up on that as possibilities as well but it would be more complicated for me to set up. I would have to bring my pa to wire it up for me with a thermostat (he's an electrician) but that would take forever, really!

I'm not a fan of heat lamps since they have to be boxed in properly to avoid burns to the snakes and in my tastes aren't the most esthetical way of providing heat.

So what would be my options? And how to set it up to provide enough heat for my snakes and be safe?

Thank you :)
Pixie

[PoiSoNouS]

I use heat pads with my wood enclosure.. in fact, the wood helps the heat not going over 32 degree...
In fact I put a piece of wood between all heat pads and the tanks.. because it becomes really to hot IMO.. !!

[Linds]

Have you considered radiant heat panels? You mount them in your enclsoure and they don't get hot enough to burn your snake so they do not need to be boxed in, as well as they are flat. They are very safe to use as well.

[Pixie]

The radiant heat panels sound great, but how does one enclose them to keep them clean? Are they moisture proof? The last thing I would want is to try and clean baked on snake messes off them!!!

Poisonous, what kind of heat pads do you use?

[Big Mike]

The radient heat panels are mounted on the top (celing) of the enclosure so cleaning would be easy.

[Kurzix]

radient heat panels are also terribly expensive, Flexwatt is by far the best heating source for the money (epseciallyif you can solder!!) best thing is with a lil insulations flexwatt can can become either a radient heat panel, or an under tank heater, slap on a $5 light dimmer, and controllable heat!

[Clownfishie]

Yeah, the only problem being that heat tape is a little difficult to come by in canada, since it's illegal up here.. hehe :)

I'm curious about this question to, as I was thinking of building a wood (or several ;)) enclosure, and was wondering how to heat it... I'm pretty sure that the UTH's aren't safe to be used on wood...