Having trouble with CHEs

[abbys]

Sorry for the long post - I'm having trouble keeping Pig's cage at a steady temperature, and I would greatly appreciate your suggestions. Here is a picture of his cage setup:

[attachment=0:w8mnvl4w]Cage1.jpg[/attachment:w8mnvl4w]

There are two 5.5" CHEs, each with a 100 watt bulb. They are both plugged into a remote sensor thermostat (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002A ... UTF8&psc=1), and the thermostat is at the highest setting. It's my understanding that having the sensor-thermostat-CHE all connected allows it to self-regulate. The sensor is placed near the bottom of his cage, along with another thermostat that provides a digital reading. The back and sides, and part of the front of the cage are covered with thermal curtains.

At night, the temperature drops from a cozy 74-76 to 70 degrees. I got the CHEs to save on my heating bill (which went from $30 pre-hedgie to $117 post-hedgie), but I'm still having to keep the central heating on higher than I'd like (I prefer cooler, like 65).

So here are some questions:
- Is it possible that the thermostat sensor is faulty and it just isn't telling the CHE lamps to stay hot enough?
- Is there a better placement for the lamps I have now? The clamps are frustrating because I can't find a good way to support the lamps, especially on a wire frame.

I'm saving up to buy a C&C cage, which I'm hoping will give me greater flexibility as to where I can place the CHEs, even though I may need an additional CHE to heat the open cage area.

[Kpjenk21]

you could try taking off the screen on the front of the lamp and sit them directly on top of the cage so it's directed downward more, that way you don't even have to use the clamp. If that doesn't work, you might have to get bigger lamps, i have two 8 inch lamps with 100w bulbs for my C&C and it works fine. Also, from the picture it doesn't look like the side curtains are covering much. I would try getting bigger pieces so all sides are being covered. If you can't get bigger pieces of the curtain, you can use fleece to cover the cage. Just make sure that if you that, that you have a light over the cage (which you should have anyway) with a timer so your hedgie has a proper day/night cycle.

[Katis228]

Definitely get at least an 8" dome. I use the 10" domes. It will spread the heat out and make the cage temp more consistent.

8.5" http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Deluxe...9533011_a1_8_p
10" http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Deluxe...%22+clamp+lamp

[jerseymike1126]

Originally Posted by Katis228

Definitely get at least an 8" dome. I use the 10" domes. It will spread the heat out and make the cage temp more consistent.

8.5" http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Deluxe...9533011_a1_8_p
10" http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Deluxe...%22+clamp+lamp

Domes cheaper at a hardware store like a home depot

[RondackHiker]

Originally Posted by jerseymike1126

Domes cheaper at a hardware store like a home depot

But those domes may be rated for heat lamps, but not for CHEs.

[abbys]

I took the curtains and whatnot off of the cage before I took the picture, so that's why it doesn't look covered

The reason I didn't get the 8" or 10" lamps was that I couldn't find a screen dome to fit that size and I was worried about putting the lamp directly on the cage wire. So you think that would be ok?

Thanks for the help!

[Kpjenk21]

Originally Posted by abbys

I took the curtains and whatnot off of the cage before I took the picture, so that's why it doesn't look covered

The reason I didn't get the 8" or 10" lamps was that I couldn't find a screen dome to fit that size and I was worried about putting the lamp directly on the cage wire. So you think that would be ok?

Thanks for the help!

I'd say it would be ok as long as the bulb sits back in the dome a little. Not sure about the 5 inch ones, but with the bigger domes the bulb is recessed in the dome a little bit so the bulb itself isn't sitting on the cage and supporting the lamp.