Page 6 - The Wonders Of Light.indd
P. 6
get. There is no such thing as too much light... probes but instead adjust my voltage based on
you will still be far off the values of sunlight. the reading of the surface temperature from an
To give you an idea sunlight on average can be infrared temperature gun.
around 100,000 lumens per square meter.
One thing I would change in my setup below
would be to have the 4000K and 6000K LED
lamps on separate circuits instead of just the
one. I will explain why a little further down.
FIGURE 7 – the voltage regulators that I use.
Mimicking The Days Light:
FIGURE 7 – My now typical lighting setup
Basking/Infrared: A lot of people use timers to automate the
turning off and on of lights. Most of them will
From personal experience I find using a group turn all the lights on and off at the same time. In
of lower wattage lamps instead of one single terms of sunlight that’s like somebody flipping
lamp to create an area of basking is much more a switch and the night suddenly becomes day.
effective (see figure 5 above). You want to create
a basking area that is large enough for all the So how can we best replicate the changes in light
inhabitants to bask at the same time and for the throughout the day in our enclosures? With the
full length of their bodies (including tails) to be use of a few more timers this can easily be done.
within it. For my enclosures I use a pair or more Generally speaking the colour of the light and
of 50W or 75W Sylvania 50 degree beam angle intensity follows a more or less identical pattern
halogen lamps for about £3-4 each. The wider at dawn and dusk (just mirrored at dusk). This is
beam creates a large smooth area of warmth. how I would time my lights:
There are multiple methods for controlling • Basking lamps: 08:00 – 20:00
the temperature of the basking area such as • 4000K LED lamps: 09:00 – 22:00
ready made commercial thermostats with • 6000K LED lamps: 12:00 – 18:00
one or multiple probes. I use dimming voltage • UV: 09:30 – 20:30
regulators within my wiring to control the
voltage to the lamp, which in turn controls By timing your lights in this way it simulates
the temperature of the basking area. I have no (to a certain extent) the differing colours and
PAGE 6 COPYRIGHT © OCT 2018 - HERP HQ HERP HQ - THE WONDERS OF LIGHT
