Habitat - Indoor :: UVA & UVB light

[AV]

I live alone, and leave my house for work around 6:30am and I'm back around 5:30pm (Mon-Fri)....

I know RES turtles need 8-12 hours of UVA & UVB light per day.... but i also know that it needs to be supervised....

I think it's much too risky to leave the UVA & UVB lights on all day while i'm at work.....

what do I do?

[sonyj]

I leave my lights on during the day set on a timer whether I'm here or not. I know a lot of others do as well. As long as they are secure there isn't anything to worry about.

[AV]

my lights do not have a timer, and i'm scared of a short circuit or a fire starting!

[jenaero]

I use surge protectors for all of my lights/filters etc. There really is nothing to worry about. As long as there is no way of the light falling into the tank then you're fine.

[kneecole]

What makes you think that they need to be supervised with the lights?

Having a timer is great. And you can plug it into a surge protector like said above. You don't have to do anything and the ligths come on at the same time every day! haha what more could you ask for!

Right now I have my lights set to go on at 6:30am - 8:30 pm. A little longer than most but that's because the turts and the dragon are using the same timer right now.

[jenaero]

I haven't bothered with timers just yet. Every so often I'll go out on a Friday night and come home at 11 or so the next morning and turn everything on a bit late but I don't think it matters much. I usually wake everyone up at 6:30 and get them fed before work then put them to bed around 9. That's pretty much the seasonal hours for daylight anyway.

[marisa]

Why do the lights need to be supervised? A decent timer (or timers like I use) makes life much easier, and puts your turtle on a regular daylight schedule. As was noted, you can (and should) use surge protectors. To make it really safe, plug equipment/the surge protectors into a GFI (ground fault interruptor) socket, which cuts the current instantly if any problem is detected.

[samandnelly]

my lights do not have a timer, and i'm scared of a short circuit or a fire starting!

Shes saying she doesn't know if they should be supervised in case of those possible accidents

[fishandcandy]

They're still just lamps and lightbulbs... They won't just short circuit or start on fire for no reason.
You can just turn them on and off. You don't need a timer.