Temperature Readings?

I realize that this doesn't really apply to people who use newspaper, but for people who have substrate with depth to it, is it only the surface substrate you care about or the temperature closer to the bottom?

I've currently got a bit of a temperature issue that I'm trying to sort out due to the season changing, but while measuring, I noticed the probe underneath said 105* while the surface temperature was only 80*(obviously this was on my hot side).

I'm assuming that the surface temperature is the important one? My guess is I need to lower the UTH and raise the bulb to fix this, but I was just curious.

how thick is your substrate? my temp at the glass is about 93-95 and the temp in the hide on top of the aspen stays around 89-91. i use about an inch of aspen

What you've got the worry about is the tempature of the glass over your UTH. It doesn't matter how much aspen is down becuase your BP will push it aside where it hangs out on the warm spot. If it pushes the apsen and lays on that 100+ degree glass it will burn it belly.

The thickness of the substrate, at least on the warm side, should be about 1/2" to 1", but no more. You just want enough to absorb feces and urates, but if it is too thick, then the heat can't radiate through it and will build up underneath it, causing temperature problems and potential burns.

Yeah, I'm aware that my substrate is currently too think, but it's because I'm trying to find a replacement hide that my snake will use. I got one of those almost flat with a slight curve logs when I first got her and she loves it, but she's getting too big for it. If it was on a completely flat surface, she wouldn't be able to fit under it.

She stresses out when I try swapping hides on her, so as a short term solution, I've got the UTH in the back left, while the hide itself is in the front left(so not directly over the UTH). And I've got the temperature up a little higher, but the substrate is deeper.

It's what's causing the huge temperature differences but it allows for more room under the log since the substrate can be used to form a sort of valley. Temp's inside the valley are about 90 according to the temp gun.

Anyone have any suggestions for a way to create a bigger version of the flat log? The arch logs are too open and she doesn't seem to be a fan of the hollow rocks(it's not temperature related because I've tried swapping the hides from the warm side to the cool side and I'll finder her under that log no matter what)