Nepenthesis
Formerly known as Pineapple
So I decided to get a second heater since it will be in the mid thirties for a while at night. My space heater has been keeping it around 55F in the GH at lowest in the night with nights in the low 40s, but I'm afraid the GH temperature will dip into the 40s with 30F nights. I got another 1500w heater in addition to my current one which puts out a lot more heat, however when I ran them together like I was planning to (they both have thermostats), they cut the power back on each other to about half and then after a minute the power surge protector cut off and I had to reset it.
So to get back to where I was saying the new one puts out more heat... It puts out a LOT of heat. It would definitely keep the GH in or around 50F on even a 20F night. When I hold my arm up to the heat flow, it feels really hot like a burn. If something got in that or it got knocked over, I feel like it would catch on fire. If it got angled at some live sphag in one of the close-by pots, I feel like it would completely dry it out and make it catch on fire. The other heater just puts out warm air. I guess the older one is a coil heater, I can see coils... The new one is a ceramic heater, it heats up a lot.
For now I unplugged the ceramic heater and kept the original one. When it is going to be in the 30s I will take all of the plants inside, but with almost 30 neps, some vining really high with massive leaves, it is going to be hard to find places for them. The humidity will drop when I move them inside and in the past it has made new pitchers stop and has caused problems for the plant just after one night. Just 40% humidity or a bit less inside the house, 60s at night 70s in the day.
Over the next few days I will test it out during the day to make sure nothing bad will happen before using it at night, just to see what it can do so I can decide if it is a bad idea or not. I'm not sure what to do. The new heater says it isn't for outside use and that it shouldn't be used in humid areas, but I guess I'm already doing that with the other heater. Am I using the wrong kind of heater? I don't want my house to burn down and I don't want to kill my plants either. What are some safety precautions I can take to make sure nothing bad happens? And is there a way I am overlooking for having two heaters, one in case the other goes out?
So to get back to where I was saying the new one puts out more heat... It puts out a LOT of heat. It would definitely keep the GH in or around 50F on even a 20F night. When I hold my arm up to the heat flow, it feels really hot like a burn. If something got in that or it got knocked over, I feel like it would catch on fire. If it got angled at some live sphag in one of the close-by pots, I feel like it would completely dry it out and make it catch on fire. The other heater just puts out warm air. I guess the older one is a coil heater, I can see coils... The new one is a ceramic heater, it heats up a lot.
For now I unplugged the ceramic heater and kept the original one. When it is going to be in the 30s I will take all of the plants inside, but with almost 30 neps, some vining really high with massive leaves, it is going to be hard to find places for them. The humidity will drop when I move them inside and in the past it has made new pitchers stop and has caused problems for the plant just after one night. Just 40% humidity or a bit less inside the house, 60s at night 70s in the day.
Over the next few days I will test it out during the day to make sure nothing bad will happen before using it at night, just to see what it can do so I can decide if it is a bad idea or not. I'm not sure what to do. The new heater says it isn't for outside use and that it shouldn't be used in humid areas, but I guess I'm already doing that with the other heater. Am I using the wrong kind of heater? I don't want my house to burn down and I don't want to kill my plants either. What are some safety precautions I can take to make sure nothing bad happens? And is there a way I am overlooking for having two heaters, one in case the other goes out?