Timed Lighting Question!

[Spicyshorts]

I currently have several chams throughout my house and I am looking to relocate them all to one single room. Due to the needs of a lot of lights and a seemingly endless need for outlets I am at a loss as to how to light my room. I currently have the 8 outlet timer strips hooked up for each cham which provides 4 timed outlets. I would like to be able to have somewhere around 12 timed outlets without having to purchase three separate timed outlet strips. Any advice is great!

Thanks in advance!

 

[happy]

you can add a timer from harbor freight, about $9.00 to a dollar store power strip.... the ones my harbor freight had were 2 socket digital timers the worked down to the minute... both sockets are controlled by the timer... if you had 2 power strips, one plugged into each one, you could get 12 sockets per timer.... just my $.02

 

[Olimpia]

I feel like that is a lot more timers than you need. This is me talking as someone who doesn't know how many cages you have and whatnot, but at one point when I had 8 cages and a baby bin set up in a room I was only using two timers and two outlets, with 4-5 cages plugged into a single extension strip. The only exception was the Mistking, that was by itself.

I also try and limit the NUMBER of lights I have to plug in, to make life easier. So I would get those 4' long fluorescent lamps to provide UV over 2-3 cages instead of 2-3 separate little lamps. And so on, I try to minimalize where possible. If they are all going into a room together perhaps there might be more efficient ways of lighting everyone?

 

[Spicyshorts]

@ Happy, thanks i'll check out that solution.

@ Olimpia I was unaware they made a 4' UVB bulb. I will definitely look into that as opposed to all of the small bulbs. I have two veiled chams (kept separate), one male panther, and two sets of dwarf chams. So I could definitely save on number of lights by swapping to a 4' bulb.

Thanks a ton!

 

[Olimpia]

You're very welcome! I used to get my fixtures from Lowe's/Home Depot and then order the long UVB Reptisun bulbs online somewhere, taking advantage of deals.

 

[Carlton]

@ Happy, thanks i'll check out that solution.

@ Olimpia I was unaware they made a 4' UVB bulb. I will definitely look into that as opposed to all of the small bulbs. I have two veiled chams (kept separate), one male panther, and two sets of dwarf chams. So I could definitely save on number of lights by swapping to a 4' bulb.

Thanks a ton!

Oh yes. I've used 4' UV bulbs for years and years both on free ranges and my big cages and bird aviaries. Olympia is right...pair up your cages under bigger fixtures to share timers, expand your misting system network to cover multiple cages (manage less or more water for them by using different sizes or number of nozzles) and free up some plugs. Just know that builders never provide enough outlets for herpers.

Note: I've had trouble in the past using cheaper generic shop fixtures for ReptiSuns. They need heavier ballasts. Look for deals on double tube aquarium hoods with heavier duty ballasts. They last a long long time and look pretty nice.

 

[Spicyshorts]

Just looked online a bit after what you said. Found the bulbs and fixtures. This will cut my UVB light quantity in half. Which is super awesome! Thanks again!

 

[SycoSquirl]

you could get surge protected extension cords to plug into your wall and then you can plug anywhere from 4-12 outlets to plug the timers into or you could plug the extension cord into the timers outlets and hook all the cages up to 1-2 extension cords

 

[Carlton]

you could get surge protected extension cords to plug into your wall and then you can plug anywhere from 4-12 outlets to plug the timers into or you could plug the extension cord into the timers outlets and hook all the cages up to 1-2 extension cords

Be careful that the total draw of all the lights, timers, misters or whatever doesn't exceed the capacity of the wall plug circuit. Also, if you plug extension cords into extension cords (daisy-chaining) it does raise the risk of overheating or a fire. Use grounded heavy duty extension cords, not the cheapos.