RHPs, Thermostats and LED Lighting Recommendations in the UK?

[Mortimus]

I'm finalising a new setup for my large Greek tortoise in the UK. 'All' that remains to sort is a RHP for ambient heat in the outdoor enclosure, as well as a thermostat, and LEDs for ambient lighting. The problem being in the UK is that most of the links in the forum for recommended products are only for products in the US. I understand RHPs are hard to get in the UK; are there any UK-based people here who can recommend one (or an alternative - a heat mat perhaps?), along with a thermostat and LED lighting? I've spent hours researching and looking through threads and my head is spinning!

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hello! The only product I was able to found in UK is ReptiRad Reptile Radiator (can be ordered from Amazon and some other online shops), the wattage depends on enclosure size and height. If enclosure is long and narrow it could be better to have two less powerful than single "super-charged".

On thermostat - I see Exo Terra and Habistat in shops. They should be fine, just check their wattage - it should excess sum of heater wattages. For RHPs use of more expensive pulse-proportional thermostats is recommended, however it's not necessary. In my very small enclosure proportional thermostat would work better (with on/off temperature ramps up too quickly and RHPs do not warm up substrate deep enough), for the larger enclosure and colder surroundings it should not matter.

Ambient LED light - either "cold day light" strips from hardware store (color temperature around 6000-6500K) or Arcadia Jungle Dawn (or similar). Plant grow LED strips should be avoided (they are often composed of colored red/blue/magenta LEDs).

Alternatives to RHPs could be CHE lamps (ceramic heat emitters). But should be distributed across the enclosure's top and it could be tricky to keep them from flammable surfaces. Some other options are oil-filled radiator (you will need a protective wall to keep tortoise from burning) and chicken brooder heaters (but I haven't found large and powerful enough on UK Amazon).

At last you can look the infrared heater panels for bathrooms (but they often have their own temperature controller which is a trouble to adjust for reptile enclosure and come in too high wattages), but unless you've ran out of options I wouldn't consider them.

 

[Mortimus]

Thanks for taking the time to supply all of that info. I think I'll try the ReptiRad Reptile Radiator and see how I get on. How do I go about calculating the wattage based on the enclosure size?

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

They have recommendations on the website about wattage per enclosure volume. But from reviews I see it's better to get higher wattage (e.g. if recommended wattage is 80 better to go with 120). With proportional thermostat you won't be using more electricity than necessary but can cope with colder outside temperatures.

If you provide enclosure size, height and ambient temperatures in the room we can sort it out, I think.

 

[Mortimus]

They have recommendations on the website about wattage per enclosure volume. But from reviews I see it's better to get higher wattage (e.g. if recommended wattage is 80 better to go with 120). With proportional thermostat you won't be using more electricity than necessary but can cope with colder outside temperatures.

If you provide enclosure size, height and ambient temperatures in the room we can sort it out, I think.

Thanks. I did have a look at the website and have gone with 80 watts as the enclosure is roughly 3 feet wide by 3 feet long and 2 feet tall. That seemed about right based on the reviews.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

It looks adequate, yes. If it won't be enough I would try to address it with enclosure insulation. Please, share some photos once finished, if you don't mind.