chicken RHP for snake tub

[Kerol]

I'm planning to use this poultry RHP for the following reasons: I have a rather shy small 400 g ball python. So I keep her in a small plastic tub with UTH. I tried terrarium with infra bulb but she doesn't eat there no matter what I do, how much I cover it. As autums comes, the room temp will drop to the 65-68 range so I think an UTH will not do it. Unfortunately in Europe I can not find a low wattage RHP for reptiles. I found this developed for chicken for agricultural use a very solid good quality piece not made in China. The seller says it is often ordered for snakes and tortoises. It has 2 safety fuses and something like an on-off rheostat attached. It is only 15 Watt and 25x25 cm (smaller then 1'x1'). It produces enough heat I think. My only fear is that on full power it's surface temp reaches 160 F I measured it with heat gun. However I think ReptileBasics states the same of their products. So I plan to put it in a 25x50x25 cm tub (smaller then 1'x2'x1) put a screen guard under it to prevent direct contact and put on a dimmer or pulse thermostat. Please tell me what you think. This is how it looks like:
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[bcr229]

RHP's are designed to be placed above the critter, the critter is not supposed to lie on them. They also won't work with a tub as the top gets hot enough to melt or at least warp plastic. They are most often used in PVC or melamine enclosures which can take a lot of heat without failing. Also I have RHP's and while they do get up to 160*F they are supposed to be installed so that there is at least 6" of clearance available between the snake and the overhead RHP.

The people I know who keep reptiles in tubs where the ambient room temperature is fairly cool usually use two under-tank heaters (UTH's). For a ball python one would be set to around 91*F and the other at 81*F. Inside the tub there would be hides over both UTH's.