Page 4 - The Wonders Of Light.indd

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thermal mass (a large rock or similar) that can
absorb the infrared energy and release it again
when the lights go out.

To demonstrate this Roman visited with his
makeshift greenhouse as well as his FLIR infrared
camera. The point of the greenhouse experiment
is that keratin, the material scales and shells

are made of, has similar characteristics to the
greenhouse so that if you want the infra red
to properly warm the animal by penetration, it

has to be the right wavelength, i.e. near infra
red. Heat at other wavelengths is simply not as
effective.

FIGURE 5 – FLIR image straight after greenhouse is removed
This image (figure 5) was taken literally seconds
after the ‘greenhouse’ was lifted off. You can see
that the temperature of the rock surface within

the greenhouse is 44.2C. That’s a difference of
6.3C from only being under it for a few minutes.
The infra-red can pass through the glass on

top but the radiated heat coming off the rock
surface can’t escape. This is the same principle
with keratin. This shows these tungsten halogen
lamps are providing the correct infra red
wavelengths that they pass through the keratin

(the greenhouse) and warm and trap the heat
inside. Effectively the same as reptile skin.

FIGURE 4 – FLIR image with greenhouse in place

In figure 4 you can see the ‘greenhouse’ is in
place under the basking area with a surface
temperature showing of 37.9C. This was left here

for around 10 minutes after the lights had been
on for around 30 mins.

FIGURE 6 – An example of a 50W GU10 Halogen Lamp

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