Although measuring surface temperatures is important for ensuring the safety of our animals, it’s not the best way of determining if a heat lamp is suitable for your animal. And measuring ambient temperatures tells us even less about the bulb! We shouldn’t ignore these things, but there must be another way to approach this, right?
Well, first we have to set aside the thought of temperatures, just for a moment.
When you choose a UV lamp, it should be based on the question “does this lamp provide the adequate levels of safe UVB to my animal when basking?”. A very similar question should be asked when choosing a basking lamp too. You should ask:
“Does this basking lamp provide adequate levels of safe sun-like infrared-A to my animal when basking?”
And not:
“Does this heat bulb get the substrate up to a certain temperature?”
And then you get an idea of the approach we should take when choosing the best reptile heat lamp. That’s all well and good, so how DO we decide if a basking bulb is right? And why does a heat projector not fit into this?
A really safe method of testing your basking lamp is quite primitive but works remarkably well. After the lights have all been on for 2+ hours (undimmed), place your hand on the basking surface. You should be able to hold your hand there for a long time without it feeling too hot.
Then, have your hand raised so it’s hovering at about the height of your animal’s back when basking. Again, with all the lamps on, you should be able to hold your hand there in that position and not get too hot. You should feel the gentle heat from the lights, but you should never get uncomfortable.
It’s honestly amazing how well this works. What you’ve done is shown that even with lights on full power, and after a few hours of exposure, the surface still doesn’t get “too hot”, and your animal wouldn’t cook if they sat under the lights. You’ve proven your basking setup is safe.
And if you’ve felt the gentle warmth on the back of your hand, you’ve also proven that there’s plenty of infrared irradiating the basking area.
Not bad, right?
Now, this only works for a classic incandescent basking light, not for a heat projector or ceramic heater. Remember those ‘unnatural’ (drying) types of infrared I mentioned earlier? They can mislead you a bit when using this ‘hand under the lamp’ method – and it’s those misleading and unnatural types of infrared that heat projectors and ceramic heaters emit!
A heat projector is essentially a heavily dimmed basking light – it’s not useful for basking at all!
But, you can use a heat projector to increase temperatures if your enclosure isn’t warm enough. Just remember to run it on a dimming thermostat, so that it only comes on when your enclosure is too cold. And similar to any other heating device – always make sure it won’t overheat your enclosure if something goes wrong and it is left on at 100% power.
You’ll often find that reptiles can tolerate much cooler temps than you might think. Check out the ReptiFiles care manuals and sheets to find out more about this.
