Temps during the winter/thermostats

During the winter months, my house stays around 68 degrees. Do you think a UTH and a heat light or ceramic heater would be enough? Should I possibly plan on using 2 UTHs and connecting them both to one thermostat, putting more substrate (cypress) on the cool side to keep the temp down? What should the ambient temp be on the cool side? Any info pertaining to this would be great. FYI: using a space heater isn't an option.

I'm looking for a decent inexpensive thermostat that won't vary too many degrees. Any suggestions?

Also, would it be unwise to take a BP out of the tank to hold when the ambient temp in the house is around 68 degrees?

If you aren't having problems with humidity, then a UTH and CHE will work fine. Use the UTH on the hot side and the CHE on the cold side.

Control the UTH with a thermostat and the CHE with a dimmer. The cheapest thermostat I know of is the reptitemp 500r. They are around $25 and they get the job done. They are on/off type thermostats so they will go down to a certain temperature and then kick back on and raise the temp. That being said, it shouldn't go down more than a few degrees past what you set it to.

You can find a cheap piggy back dimmer at the home depot for $11.

As long as your able to control your heat sources you'll be ok with a uth and che. Pick up a temp gun to double check your temps and you should be fine.

I use a UTH on the cool side in the winter connected to a dimmer! I use a mini UTH on a 20 gallon which keeps the temp at 78-80 in the winter on full! My house is also about 68 in winter. You can hold the snake at this temp because it draws off your body temp! Hope this helps!

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Originally Posted by Renni

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Also, would it be unwise to take a BP out of the tank to hold when the ambient temp in the house is around 68 degrees?

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In this case, you're the snake's basking spot. It's okay for short periods like cage cleaning as long as the snake is on you. To just set in a room that cool is not a good idea.