Snake Room Programmable heater

Hello All, I recently went looking for a programmable space heater and could not find one that would suit my needs. As you all know you need higher temps in the day and lowere twemps at night. Where I live I need the heat in my snake rtoom on all day so I couldnt just delay when it came on. I own a heat and air company and since I could not find anything to work, I made my own. I know the thermostats we get for our flexwatt can be programmed but, I could not find anything to control ambeint temps in my snake room without modifying the home heat and air system. I made a self contained system that plugs into a wall outlet, goes to a juncton box(which has a relay and transformer inside), has control wire going to a programmable home heat and air thermostat from the junction box, and has a power wire coming out of the junction box to the space heater. With this setup I can have it at a lower temp at night and it will automatically raise the temps during the day. This may not be a big problem for bigger breeders with a seperate facility for their snakes but most Home hobbyists would have to go every morning and night to adjust their space heaters. I have attached pics of the setup it is pretty simple, you just need a space heater that has the option to be left on all the time and when the thermostat calls for heat it sends the power to the heater. If anyone is interested in one of these systems please let me know and I would gladly help you as much as possible. Thanks Chad Tibbs

Or you could just hook up an oil filled radiator to a thermostat with a night drop. either way it works lol.

Just trying to see the difference

This is the setup we use. Oil filled radiator with a ranco.

Is that the system you use a radiator style with a night drop. Just dont think its a good idea to use a thermostat made for our heat strip type systems, which proportionally adjusts the power to the strips for a heater thats designed to regulate itself, sounds like a way to burn up parts. The system I use completely cuts power to the heater when the desired temp is reached, and turns power back on when it drops, thats why I use a blower style heater it can be left on full blast and when its sent power heats the room very quickly. The thermostat I used on this setup allows for the temp to gradually go down at night because it has 4 changeover periods, you can drop it 2 degrees then an hour later 2 more. And I just dont think the setup you described would be nearly as accurate, but what do I know, not like Im a heat and air tech.

This setup is an on/off system. Not proportional like you're thinkin Although, your setup is probably easier on the electric bill.

Bo with the system you use do you have to adjust it at night or do you use a night drop too.

It can be programmed for night drop, but we keep our ambient constant at 78deg. We have night drops programmed on our rack therms

And if it is an on off system a radiator style would take longer to heat up then the blower style, not saying others wouldnt work just trying to help as this is my feild of experteice and I see a big benifit in being able to regulate accurately and program different settings, you can even program the days to have different temps and not have to adjust as often

That's the difference between the two. Your setup is instant heat, mine is gradual. I like ours, the temp doesn't budge one bit, but it probably isn't nearly as energy efficient as yours I'm guessing.