High desert crabbing

[TahoeT87]

I'm new to keeping hermit crab keeping. About 8 months in (kind of a long story) and I live in the high desert of Nevada. I have my crabitat in my room which gets rather wild temp swings depending on the season and even time of day during any given season. I was hoping an experienced crabber in the same situation might be able to give some input on crab keeping in a dry and possibly cold climate during mainly the winter months. What type of thermometer/ hygrometer/ combo do you use? What type of thermostat/hydrostat? I'm mainly just looking for some input on how to maintain a constant heat and humidity in a colder (during winter), dry climate. Any input is appreciated. TIA.

[wodesorel]

Are you on Facebook at all? I'm not sure if she's on this forum much these days, but one of our founders is in the southern Cali desert (I think, it's that general area) and is active on our FB group of the same name. I know she's talked about some of the creative solutions she's had to do over the years!

[curlysister]

I live on the Canadian prairies. Temps outside can be -40 in the winter and +30 in the summer. I live in an old farm house, with a baseboard heater in the room upstairs that my tank is in, and the air conditioning doesn't reach up there in the summer.
I don't have anything fancy. I have a 55 gallon tank, with four UTH's (two on the back, one on each side). Two can be insulated over top and two can't. I have a plexiglass lid, with one corner cut out for ventilation. I have a 100% wool blanket that I fold up and put on the top of the tank, as well as a spare one that I can drape over the front if needed.
During times when the weather is changing a lot between night and day - ie, this past week we have been -5C at night but up to 15C during the day - I check the temp and humidity twice a day, and make adjustments to how many heaters are plugged in, blankets on and off. It takes a bit of time to check, but it works for me.
I find that the humidity tends to stay in the high 80s, or usually over 90% in my tank. When I had smaller tanks, there was a bigger fluctuation, and sometimes I had to mist. I use a mix of playsand and eco earth for the substrate. I don't have bubblers or misters or any moss in the tank.
Hope that helps a bit!

[JTKermie]

Sorry if I missed it, but what do the room temps run for you?

I keep my two 29g crabitats in a finished room in our basement. Both with glass tops and 8-10" of substrate. The room temp varies from ~65F to 75F at most. I have ultratherm 11"x23"'s on the backs of both tanks with temperature controllers set at ~80F. With bubblers in the pools, both tanks stay in the low-mid 80F range for temp and ~78-85% for humidity. I use AcuRite digital temp/humidity gauges in both.