Heating

With electricity being so expensive, I'd like to use a more energy-efficient form of heating than the conventional incandescent bulbs...Are ceramic heat emitters more efficient, or the same? What about heat pads or heat tape? Or others? I haven't been able to find concrete info about this anywhere.

I am also curious about this topic.

Have any of you found any cost effective ways to save on electricity?

I have pretty much cut out all of my heat lamps, and now use mainly heat tape. I am also contemplating using a space heater to heat a whole room.

What do you use?

I haven't yet used them myself, but radiant heat panels are advertised as using substantially less electricity than standard bulbs. The Pro Heat site itself seems to have as much information as anywhere on these: <a href="http://www.pro-products.com/proheat.html">Pro Heat Radiant Heat Panels</a>.

If anyone has further information or experience on radiant heat panels, I'd be interested in hearing it.

What has worked for me is to have a heated room with a constant "acceptable" nightime temperature, in my case 75F. Each individual enclosure (all identical in size) has it's mylar heat tape under one of the extremes which gives a hot spot of 90F (regulated with a thersmostat). A timer will control the 12h cycle both for light and the hot spot which is turned off "at night".

Best regards.

I personally know nothing of electricty so these words are coming from my fiance.............

" i suggest keeping the room at a moderate tempature. For examplewrmer than what you might like it but cooler than nessessary for the reptile. Then suplimenting this with heat tape on a proportaional thermostat. Heat emmiters use about the same electricy as a light bulb. They work in the same way. they have a sealed element that heats up inside the ceramic. If the emmiter is 60 watts it is equivalent to running a 60 watt light bulb for the same amount of time. Space heaters are inefficient by design . they radiate heat in one direction only and cause inconsistant temps throught the room. Some of the new oil filled radiator type heaters are more energy efficient because the oil once heated stays warm for a long time. the drawback is you need to make sure your room is well insullated and draft free. These heaters do not have forced air fans to circulate the heat so a drafty window will cause you to have a cold area in the room. The most overall energy saving system is heat tape on a proportional thermostat and make sure your room is very well insulated. I hope this helps answer some of your questions.
reguards-russ"

One thing I forgot to add is that I don't have forced air in the room. The 75F is measured at approximately half way between the floor and the ceiling. There is thus also a vertical temperature gradient in the room; closer to the floor it will be in the high 60's to 70F and closer to the celing 80+ (as hot air tends to go up). By doing it that way I can place different species or animals in different physiological stages at different heights (shelves) and thus different minimum nightime temperatures.

Best regards.