Appologises in advance for the long explaination. I would like an indoor cabinet greenhouse with high humidity to grow tropical plants.
I have been looking at heat mats with thermostats attached, for reptiles and seedlings for this reason. I'm looking for a large plain black one, I don't like the ones with writing on. There appears to be only be reptile flat black mats on Amazon UK that are sold without writing on them. I will need to place heavy plant pots on the mat and it will be the length of the IKEA cabinet (Rudsta short cabinet with 2 doors).
As I live in the UK, the night time temperatures, especially in winter, can get too low at night not to have the heat mat on 24/7. I'm concerned about safety. I was looking at buying a reptile one on Amazon and some reviews have said it caused a fire and killed there reptiles - yet they are made for reptiles sitting on them and then being on 24/7, so I am concerned. I don't want to wake up to my lounge being on fire! I thought it best not to buy from Amazon but a well known pet shop as they must test products where as Amazon products are sold by everyone without checks from Amazon. So I looked on a well known pet shop, expecting safety not to be an issue. And whilst they didn't have a heat mat with a thermostat, they had a glass panel that they say a heat mat can go on for reptiles, yet the review was that the glass shattered due to the heat and would have killed their reptile had it been near it.
The plant pots also need to sit on the mat and have high humidity which makes me question if that could cause a fire in itself. I haven't the space to not put the heat mat under heavy plant pots, and I don't have any room for it to be anything other than a flat mat. I don't know what shop I can use to feel I can sleep at night, yet I can't not have heat on all night and it needs to stay on 24/7 when I go away too. And it needs a thermostat which limits things further.
To add to this I don't know what to use for power cuts, which sometimes last over a day. It may not be a big deal but will shock tropical plants, especially if it happens over night in winter, and sometimes takes one day or a day and a half to come back on. As I say, I don't have the space for anything bigger than a flat mat to go into the cabinet. Its been about 11 - 14 degrees in my lounge during the daytime these winter months. Due to the energy crisis I'm not heating my home much, and at night time it gets colder of course. My newly bought calathea, poor thing, is dying due to this, as I haven't got a cabinet yet (I bought it without realising it needs humid warm temperatures at 20 degrees plus, which lead me to find out about tropical indoor greenhouses). I will however put money into heating the tropical plant cabinet when I get one, I just don't feel safe doing it without knowing which brand and company to go to to meet all my requirements. Below is an example of the cabinet I'm getting.
