Ceramic Heat Emitter

[JerseyHen]

If they heat objects, not air, will they also heat the thermometer so that I can get an accurate temperature? I am not sure if the lamp I have is heating properly and would like to know if anyone else has experience with them before I go out to buy a new lamp. I was interested in the CHE because it puts out heat not light. The lamp might just be too high. I will play with it again tomorrow. Anyone have any experience with these? How high did you have it? My brooder is kind of big so I will also try putting up a barrier to see if it helps. Thoughts?

 

[loot4louie]

I use a ceramic reptile light, I keep a thermometer right under it like any other light. I did have to play with its distance from the ground, but it got nice and toasty. I still use a metal cage around it for safety.

 

[onesweetfarm]

I am not sure how you have the brooder set up but I did experience some difficulty getting the right temperature. I have one 250 watt red heat lamp and an 11x11 sweeter heater. The sweeter heater throws heat but not light. It turns out that I had to raise the brooder itself off of the floor. They are in the basement and the floor is concrete. Although the brooder is made out of plywood having it directly on the cold floor didn't work. I put a styrofoam block about a foot thick underneath the brooder. That is all it took. The heat lamp is outside of the brooder about a foot above the chicks and the heater is in the brooder. The temperature has been reading a consistent 95 degrees and the chicks are moving freely about. I hope that was helpful. Good luck!

 

[Sorin]

I have one of those ceramic heat emitters. I bought for my chicks I have coming next week so I have only had it for a test run and it seemed to work good. I believe the temp reading on my thermometer was fairly accurate. I ran it for a few hours trying to get the height adjusted, and checking temps in all parts of the brooder. For the few hours I used it I was happy with it, however, this is my first time with chicks, all my chickens I got before as started pullets, so I have never used the heat lamp bulb before to compare it with. I got the CHE because of all the horror stories about cheap heat bulbs breaking when no one was home!

 

[JerseyHen]

My brooder is 3 ft by 5 ft and 24 inches high (pics on my page). It is hardware wire for walls, but I have them cardboarded in for now. It is in a room in my house that is currently open to nearly outside temps (ceiling is gutted for a remodel so it gets about 40 in there at night. I was hoping to keep the lamp ouside of the brooder for safety purposes, but it is probably too deep to get a spot warm enough. I will probably buy the red lamp just to be sure I have it covered if I need it. Thanks for all the info though.