What is this?

[Leighanne]

Its from Clay Davenport here to, well a link from his site I believe. http://www.atlantasupply.com/thermostat-honeywell-white-rodgers.htm These things look like house hold Thermos, not ones for Reptiles. The more I get into this the more confused I am. I don't get it. Whats programmable, and non-programmable?? What is there to program. At first I was looking up different pieces. My brain scattered thoughts of a Rheo for Jake and a three plug ESU for the other three that have the same temps. Now a three piece rack system of some sort run by heat tape and I believe that could all be hooked up to one Thermostat is looking better. If thats true then 70 bucks on one good Thermo sounds fair to me. I am beginning to regret having almost all of my babies now! I had NO clue I was this far off base about stuff. I was wrong man. I was wrong. WOW. I don't even know what else to say right now and its late and I'm tired. I'll have to go to bed and think about more specific questions and I have tommorrow off so I'll be sure to be on. (All day.) *Sigh* Whats up with on/off Thermos and Proportionals to?

[hhmoore]

With home thermomostats, you can get the basic model (nonprogrammable) that you just set the temp and leave it there...or manually change the setting when you want it warmer or colder; or, you can get a programmable Tstat with which you can set it to change temps at various times during the day. I believe that those types of Tstats are best applied to large applications (heating a room vs heating a cage).

on/off vs proportional - it'll make perfect sense to you once you read it, lol.
--the on/off t'stat has a set temp, and a set variance (I'll use 2 degrees, for example).
You set the temp at 86. When the temperature at the probe drops to 84 (2 degrees below the setpoint), the t'stat turns on the heat source. The heat will stay on until the temp at the probe reaches 88 (2 degrees above setpoint), then the t'stat shuts it off. It will stay off until the temp drops down to 84 again.
--the proportional t'stat adjusts the amount of power going to the heat source to keep the temperature more constant. As the temp gets closer to the set point, the amount of power is decreased so less heat is generated...if the temp starts to drop, more power is given. This type of t'stat generally offers tighter temperature control (I use them to control my incubators)

[wcreptiles]

Here's a discusion on thermostats.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70755&page=1&pp=5

It may offer some insight, it may confuse you more. The on/off or proportional will serve you well and you shouldn't stress out trying to decide which to buy.

If you need to control multiple zones at different temperatures you can go with the Habitat Control Systems 4 Zone Model at around $260 or the 2 zone Spyder HerpStat II for around $230.

You can't go wrong with the Cadillac of controllers, the Helix DBS-1000 for $120 or so. Some reliable on/off thermostats to use are the Ranco and Johnson both are around $70.

I use all of the above in one way or another and they work well. The main objective is to get a reliable heat source on your animals soon.

[Leighanne]

Ok, so HoneyWell is more a home based Thermostat. This page I was looking at looked like Home Thermos, but was on a REPTILE page. How many people here hook up there heat tape or whatever heating supply their using to HoneyWells and such?? How many people here do that?? I am beginning to wonder about this now. I do know that home supplies and Reptile supplies are most often mixed. People who know electrical and how to wire are straight lucky! I have been the one lookinjg up all this crap, and I'm freakin challenged. None the less I left my Fiancee a note this morning saying We need to talk. I mean hes Daddy, and smarter, and has worked with electrical and wires. I am gonna make him educated tonite. Well see from there. He deserves it anyway he always tells me I overthink everything. I'll make him simplify this for me. Anymore questions after that and I'll be on.

[DThomas]

Ok, so HoneyWell is more a home based Thermostat. This page I was looking at looked like Home Thermos, but was on a REPTILE page. How many people here hook up there heat tape or whatever heating supply their using to HoneyWells and such?? Those are 24v thermostats and will not work with heat tape. Those thermostats are not designed to supply power to anything. All they do is turn equipment on and off. You would have to wire some other sort of power supply in-line with the heat tape for those to work. Very cost prohibitive and not a clean way to do it.

The t-stats wcreptiles mentioned all supply power to the heat tape without any additional equipment. They are much cheaper and more reliable than the above scenario.

Remember that rheostats only work so well. If the ambient temperature in your room changes, the temp in your enclosure will change with it. Also, if it fails, it will usually fail in the fully open position, causing severe over heating. The ESU t-stats are only rated if i remember correctly at 500 watts. You need to becareful what you plug into them as they could overload easily, creating a fire hazard.

[wcreptiles]

I briefly looked at Clay Davenports website and I believe the link to the Honeywell Thermostat that you referenced was a Sponsored Ad and not something he was recommending for reptile use. The "Sponsored Ads" are semi-related items that are displayed at the bottom of the pages in hopes that a viewer will be interested enough to investigate and make a purchase, in return the owner of the website usually gets compensated.

I second what Mr. Thomas said about the Honeywell thermostat, it is not made to work with heat tape. I would not consider using it, enough said.

Use something made for reptile use, connect it properly and you can't go wrong.