Heat Cable in Styrofoam?

[Ipsl]

I have an odd shaped tub for my females so Ive been using heat lamps succesfully so far. Though Ive been thinking of getting heat cable and running it in an s fashion loged into styrofoam though not all the way through. Would it work? Ive read on instruction guides to some UTHs and the suggest styrofoam underneath to reduce heat loss.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Since styrofoam is a heat insulator, it seems like it would not be a good candidate to use for heat applications.

 

[Ipsl]

? Thats the exact opposite train of thought I was on.

Becasue its a heat insulator wouldint it work well? Im not follwing what your saying. Would it melt? catch fire? I dont think it would at around only 95 degress tops.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I guess I'm confused as to what you are trying to do... are you thinking about using the styrofoam container as an incubator? or gecko enclosure with heat cable running in a serpentine pattern in the bottom?

I doubt that it would melt the styrofoam if it was kept at 90-94 degrees... hovabators are made of styrofoam and don't melt at that temperature.

 

[Ipsl]

gecko enclosure with heat cable running in a serpentine pattern in the bottom.

But inside the strofoam as to make the tub level all around meaning underneath the entire tube would be 7/16" styrofoam and in half of that is the serpentinepattern. does that make sense?

 

[GroovyGeckos.com]

I think you mean to have the styrofoam underneath the tubs on each shelf, in a rack, to hold the cable in place?

That would be alot easier than routing the shelves.

I would say with the hovabators, the heater does not actually come into contact with the styro, so I am not sure what to tell you about it melting or burning. The heat element is probably quite a bit warmer than the rest of the temps in the incubator tho`.

 

[Ccrashca069]

You can always make a prototype and see how it works.

 

[Ipsl]

So I tried it an heres what I did and used:

It didnt work how I thought it would and it didnt really sit in the stryofoam like I wanted. So I just taped it to the bottum as so:

It works very very well. Im happy with this and I havent heard good or bad about this so I was kinda worried.
an this is just cute

they like each other