New IR Bulb

[WillemsMom]

Sean, I bought a 250 watt Phillips IR bulb today.
It's giving off much more heat and is really a deep, bright red. I think it will be wonderful for Will.

[IguanaKing]

That's great Nancy! ;D The Phillips is what I was using before, they do a great job and they're really tough bulbs. My last one had been broken by Hercules and was just hanging by its wires (it looked to be intact but wobbled if you moved it)...but it still worked, I ended up replacing it just because it was a safety hazard even though it was working just fine. I'm using a Sylvania now, and it seems to be just as effective...don't know if it'll stand up to a Herulean tail-whip though. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

[WillemsMom]

I think I bought two white light bulbs before, Sean.
They were in sleeves that said they were red lamps, and they were reddish if low on the dimmer, but looking at the is new RED one, it is definately RED.

[IguanaKing]

For everybody else who might read this thread. If we are providing radiated heat to our reptiles, we are providing IR. There are, of course, differences in how much we are providing, but its still IR.

imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/infrared.html

[IguanaKing]

Yes. A disclaimer for every member on this site: Just like Dom said, and what I failed to mention directly, the high powered IR heat lamps must be used carefully. Please PM me before contemplating using this type of heat source for your ig, I can help you to determine if its safe for your situation.

[mar]

Guess I will throw my 2 cents in too -- from the view of an electrical guy with a fireman bro.

First of all I take it by IR bulb you mean a red light bulb running at about 250 W.

IR occurs when an element pushes waves out with wavelengths longer than visible red light.

Everything from here on applies to all types of bulbs we use -- white, flood, halogen, coloured, and CHEs

My take on this is not concentrating on the animal safety but on general fire safety. When you get to anything over 150 W you start to run into problems with fixtures and insulation getting to hot. You need to make sure that the lamp base is fully ceramic and copper, mounted well to a solid base. Do not use these in a clamp light anywhere. Securely screw the lamp base to a wood or metal base away from any fabric, paper, or the like. Wire the first foot or so of the base with high temp insulated 12 ga wire. You can have the bulb safely aligned and such for the animal but still be a large fire hazard for you.

Personally I won't use a bulb over 100 W. If 100 W is not enough to heat the area enough I add another. By using more smaller bulbs I am able to better control the heat by turning them on an off. With the single 250 W unit you have on or off.

Until I bought the 60 W mega-heat HP -- which I love -- I used 100 W coloured flood lamps, the really heavy glass reflector type ones for outdoor use, about $4 each. The reflector glazing of the bulb somewhat focused the heat down rather than losing most of it out of the top of the bulb.

Mark

[IguanaKing]

Thanks for the input, Mark. ;D Proper precautions should always be taken when using any electrical device to avoid fire risk. Even a device that disipates less than 10 watts of power can cause a fire if it is not placed a certain, minimum distance away from flammable material. Heh...when I was a little kid I set my favorite blanket on fire with a 40 watt, ordinary light bulb (I was using a table lamp as the center pole for a "tent" I made with the blanket.) I thought my parents were gonna kill me. So, fire risk is always there...but if proper precautions are observed, it can be eliminated. Thanks for adding that angle though, its very important.

The goal of using a lamp of this type is not so much to heat the air in the enclosure, it is more to heat the animal directly, the same way the sun does. This is accomplished by controlling the distance at which the lamp is placed from the basking area. The air temperature in my igs' enclosure never goes much above the mid 80's, but, when they sit directly underneath the IR lamp, their body temperature is easily maintained in the low-to-mid 90's. When they need to cool off, they simply move out of the IR lamp's coverage area. I believe this more closely mimics how iguanas in the wild obtain their heat, its like moving out of the sunlight into the shade. I'm not here to promote one heating method over the other, however, because I know everyone here does a great job of providing a healthy environment for their iguana. I think Bob and Dom just wanted to make it clear that IR radiation can be dangerous if a minimum distance isn't observed, as I had said in other threads on the subject.

[dominick]

Sean and Nancy-

I apologize if I managed to offend you in some way.

It was never my intention.

[Tesa]

OK..we've gotten so long winded on this topic that I'm afraid we've lost the real message.
I am ABSOLUTELY no expert on this, but the way I understand it is this:
Both Dom and Sean are correct. The way Bobmac worded his question caused some confusion.
We are ALL providing our animals with IR heat in various forms. The difference in the lamps Sean is speaking of is that they are more powerful than what most people are accustomed to using. Bobmac was questioning the "strength" of the IR lamp.
As with all heat devices, extreme caution should be used.

Some of the "off topic" posts have been removed in order to lighten the load here and stick to the real information. I don't want members sitting in front of their computers with their eyes spinning around in their heads!! ;D

[WillemsMom]

Good Move, Tesa, and Dom..all is well.
Peace.

[IguanaKing]

Yup...water under the bridge, Dom. ;D