The Basking Spot: Clamp Lamps w/ Dimmer

If you liked this article, then LIKE this article here!

Fluker’s Clamp Lamps with Dimmer

By Jennifer Greene

The more familiar you get with reptiles and reptile husbandry, the more you realize the importance of controlling temperature and light for your animals. Many caresheets and online forums highly recommend the use of a dimmer or thermostat with all products that provide heat, which helps you as a keeper more accurately control exactly what temperature your animals are living at. Most of the time, you have to purchase a dimmer or thermostat separately from your fixture, increasing your overall cost for set up and adding yet another item to the clutter around your cage.

Fluker’s has seen this, and produced a couple sizes of a fantastic fixture that comes with a dimmer switch already attached. This is great for a number of reasons, the primary one being that now it is super easy to dim down your heat lights as needed. While right now it is winter, and you likely need all the heat you can get in your tanks, come summertime you don’t need nearly so much. Before this, you often had to buy a set of bulbs for winter, and a set for summer – two different wattages for the different temperature needs. With the Fluker’s Clamp Lamp with dimmer, all you’ll have to do is dial down the light in the fixture! You’ll save money not only in how much you spend on lightbulbs, but also on electricity due to your ability to dial down the lights any time there’s a warm day.

The only downside is that the fixtures do not work for mercury vapor bulbs or fluorescent lights, as the way those bulbs are designed they can only turn off and on. They do not work when dimmed, and attempting to use a dimmer with them can burn them out. The 8.5” fixture can take bulbs up to 150 watts, while the 5.5” fixture can take bulbs up to 75 watts. They both are the standard black color of most fixtures, and screwing a bulb into the fixture is easy enough.

They both come with clamps in addition to the dimmer function, and are about the same price as regular clamp lamps without the dimmer function, making them a very economically priced fixture.

Since most dimmers cost almost as much as just these fixtures, and thermostats are at least double the price or more, there’s no reason not to just upgrade your light fixtures to something that allows you to easily control the light and heat output of your bulbs.