Heat blub wattage

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Carol
Posts: 9
Joined: 05 Oct 2020, 12:26

Heat blub wattage

Post by Carol » 20 Oct 2020, 10:03

Hi what is the best wattage to buy for heat lamp, I did get a 13watt 10.0 uvb but had to send it back it only worked for 2 hrs.when it was on I didn't feel any heat coming out of it. Any help or advice please

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Nina
Posts: 2016
Joined: 16 Mar 2017, 11:22

Re: Heat blub wattage

Post by Nina » 20 Oct 2020, 16:23

Hi Carol,

There are two ways to provide heat and UVB.

The first way is to buy a fluorescent bulb that produces UVB, like the one you bought, but they don't produce any heat so you need to have a separate bulb for heat. I'm assuming that the one you bought looked like a fluorescent tube, rather than an ordinary bulb shape. For the heat an ordinary 100W household spotlight will work, in addition to that UVB tube, or you can buy reptile basking bulbs that provide bright light and heat but no UVB, and then you have your separate tube for UVB.

The second way is to buy a combined UVB/heat/light mercury vapour bulb. These provide all three, and for most homes a 100W bulb should be enough, although if the room is very cold then aa 120W bulb might be necessary,

In both cases you want to get a temperature of 30C directly below the heat bulb and at the height of the tortoise's shell, so you might have to raise or lower the heat bulb to increase or decrease the temperature. Does that make sense? Here is our article on indoor enclosures, and there is a big section on lighting and heating. https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/tor ... 48ASO3TWNI Is this any help?

Nina

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