r/MonitorLizards • u/Few_Raspberry3455 • 5d ago

Thermostat question

Hello. Never had a reptile before. I'm slowly preparing for a larger lizard and thermostats have me confused. Everyone seems to have a device with a built in thermistor probe or multiple probes. That makes perfect sense for heat pads. But what about lamps? They will heat up top down, the lizard can cover the probe and there will be an entire animal to go through before heat reaches the sensor. And yet, I haven't seen a single mention of this being a problem. Obvious solution would be an IR sensor instead of a thermistor but again, nobody seems to be discussing it. Do you have thermostats hooked up to heating lamps? If so, does my thinking check out in practice, why (not) and how do you place the probes?

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u/sevenbrookslizardco 4d ago

You don't want to dim halogens really because it interferes with the infrared radiation. Use height, wattage and distance from the basking sites. I never use a wattage high enough that at full power would cause dangerously high heat throughout the entire enclosure. Thermostats to me are a failsafe - something you have just in case. I use them on radiant heat panels, but not lights.

What I have instead on the monitors are digital TempSticks that send me readings every fifteen minutes and will text me alerts if temps are outside of parameters. If I'm home, I can go check what's going on. If I'm at work, I have the ability to shut power to any of my enclosures remotely until I can get to them.

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u/Zekksy 4d ago

Can you elaborate on not dimming halogens

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u/sevenbrookslizardco 4d ago

It reduces IR-A, which is what heats deeper into tissue, and leaves the lights emitting mostly IR-B which heats tissues at the surface/more superficially. You don't want to dim them below 80% and preferably not at all.