Reptile knowledge

Being energy effi cient…

…without compromising animal welfare

John Courteney-Smith MRSB

Arcadia Reptile; Head of Science and Innovation/Author/Herpetologist

The one big topic on all of our minds at the moment is energy spend. Worrying about price caps and monthly bills has become a national obsession. As a hobby, both reptile keeping and aquatics have been associated with higher energy spend and this is due to the number of electronics required to sustain life. For reptiles, this is vastly important as these incredible animals are powered by the energy contained within light. A lack of, or an imbalance of energy going in, equates in full to a lack of energy available to maintain life. Higher bills could, of course, mean that for some, especially those with multiple species, that the animals become unaffordable and may lead to heart-breaking rehoming.

As technology advances alongside our own knowledge of the biological function of these species, we can indeed make good choices in order to reduce energy spend, while also ensuring that animal welfare is not compromised.

If reptiles must receive a certain quantity of energy per day to create a certain temperature and UV Index, we can choose lamps and methods of control that are more able to provide this in a less wasteful and more accurate fashion.

Not all heat lamps or heat sources are equal! As we learn more and more about infra-red, we are starting to see that certain wavelengths are more bioavailable than others. In simple terms, the more like the spectrum of unfi ltered fullspectrum terrestrial day light is as an emission from a lamp or lamps, the more fully and deeply this energy can be used by life. Why? Because it is this provision that all life has developed towards over vast time, therefore it is perfect. As an example, the sun provides us with energy directly within Infra-Red-A and Infra-Red-B. These are therefore the most bioavailable or usable wavelengths of light. Heat sources, such as ceramic heaters, heat mats, cables, and radiant heaters, only provide energy within Infra-Red-C which is not provided directly by the sun. IR-C is available on Earth through convection and re-admission after the sun has heated an object. It is IR-C that we feel as warm air and IR-C that creates our weather. IR-C does not impact the dermis very deeply at all and as such is not a good choice as a primary heater. It is very good, however, at warming air and water vapour in air. This is why IR-C heaters are so drying. Changing from a high wattage ceramic heater, which are inherently wasteful due to their design (emitting heat all over the lamp in an unfocused and uninsulated way), and moving towards a lamp that has a more natural or ‘wild-like’ spectrum, and is better insulated and focussed can indeed save money.

Warm air is required of course, but it is not a good provider for life. Therefore, to power an animal and create a suitable basking zone we have had to run powerful lamps for long periods. Being poorly insulated and emitting energy all over said device also means that this energy cannot be targeted to an area appropriate per species basking zone.

The right light

So, what are our choices?

Tungsten fl ood lamps — these produce a much more natural spectra, being heavy in IR-A. This means that we have some visible light and lots of red and short wavelength Infra-red. They are simply more bioavailable to life. They are also refl ected; this means that the fl ood of light produced can be targeted over a basking zone. They can be placed in a deep dome fi tting which will aid with some insulation and projection of heated air around the lamp downwards. A better choice by far but still not the most cost-effective option. Halogen Flood lamps — these produce a very similar spectra to Tungsten lamps, slightly skewed more fully into red but non the less highly bioavailable. They are also much better refl ected internally which reduces waste heat coming out of the sides and back of the lamp and pushes almost all of it forwards. They are also made from much thicker, highly insulated glass. This again keeps more heat within the envelope of the lamp which can be pushed forwards by the refl ector. Halogen lamps also use halogen gases within a capsule heated by a tungsten coil to create light, the result is that they produce more light per watt used than standard tungsten lamps — they are brighter. If a 100w tungsten can replace a 150w ceramic, a 75w halogen can replace the 100w tungsten. Lowering spend in line with the decrease in wattage required. Deep Heat Projectors — These use new tech to produce some IR-A, lots of IR-B and some IR-C but mostly from convection of the heated lamp. This makes them more bioavailable as an energy choice than ceramics, mats, cables and RHP. DHP lamps are highly effi cient and very well insulated and refl ected. They produce no visible light and can be used 24/7. A 50w DHP if used correctly can replace a 100w ceramic in terms of heat production, but would be far more bioavailable to life also. In short, an animal previously kept with IR-C heating would have more energy to use when moved to these lamps and they would require far less energy to reach optimal basking.

We can then look at the provision of UV. We should be providing a minimum footprint of projection that covers the whole animal at basking. This is nose to vent in lizards and the whole of a snake while coiled at basking. We can provide wider areas of course for animals living in good sized enclosures, but in most cases a dragon living in a 4x2x2’ viv can be provided with a 24w of a suitable % of UV-B to cater for the UVI needs of the species at the given basking distance per keeper design. For almost all this will be 12% UV-B. Moving from old style T8 lamps to HO-T5 kits will also increase the quantity of the whole spectrum of light, including visible light and UV, which aids natural basking. T5 systems are fl icker free which are better for reptilian vision and they waste less energy than magnetic control systems for T8. There are savings and welfare increases to be found with swapping to high quality HO-T5 systems from T8.

Using a good quality dimming thermostat for the heat lamp can dramatically reduce energy spend, save lives from over-heating and prolong the life of heat lamps. If you have a 100w lamp running for 12 hours a day direct to mains it is drawing a round 100w all day. Heat will continue to build which risks the dangerous over heat. Having good dimming control means that via a probe, temperature is measured as being live and the energy supplied to the lamp altered to maintain a set temperature. This may then mean that the lamp is only drawing 100w for the fi rst hour or two and then drops down to 30 — 60% for the rest of the day as it maintains the selected temperature. If we can cut our running hours or level of energy going in over the day by even 30 — 40% this makes up for the recent increases in electrical cost when compared to those running direct to mains.

We can therefore see an increase in welfare by moving from wasteful heating systems that have a low bioavailability to those that use less energy to create a higher level of animal welfare. We can choose UV systems that use less and waste less energy while also seeing a potential decrease in energy spend. We can protect our animals and lower our energy spend much further (in most cases and especially in the warmer months) by using good dimming thermostats correctly.

Asking struggling keepers what systems are currently being employed and then helping them to make small changes can therefore lead towards higher welfare, lowered running costs and most importantly, less heartbreak from avoidable rehomes. The right lamp can bring better welfare and save money.