Herp vs Human heating pad?

I'm bringing home my first BP in the next week and I've been looking around for the best way to heat her enclosure. I have seen some suggestions to use human heating pads instead of the usual reptile brand herp ones (to save cost mostly), but I was wondering if these provide enough heat for the snake? I currently have a 15 gallon tank, but the only form of heat I have right now is a white bulb heat lamp, which is probably the worst choice out there (it came with the tank when I bought it). So I'm trying to figure out a cost effective way to properly heat my little girl, any and all suggestions are welcome!

Heat tape isn't really expensive. Reptile Basics will wire it for you free of charge too! It's the thermostat that gets you :) I am pretty new here, but I've read up on some less expensive thermostats if money is a big issue - amazon.com has a Hydrofarm thermostat that I've read reviews on saying it works well for their reptile set up. I got one and am currently testing it out... So far, so good. As for a human heating pad, most of them have auto-off timers which leaves you worrying over turning it back on all the time. I personally used one only in an emergency situation, as we got a snake while traveling and I needed a way to keep her temps up just until we got her home. I don't think I'd recommend it for long term use... Anyway, that's just my two cents :) hopefully there will be others who can give a more experienced standpoint on it!

You can order a stat and flexwatt all from Reptile Basics ;)

A human heating pad will not work as they have a timer that turns them off after a couple hours.

Additionally human pads become exceptionally hot (too hot) and are a different design all together and cost far more to run. If there were savings it would shortly disappear into a power bill.

Heat sources and t-stats are not places to save money.

I used a human heating pad until it burnt a whole in the snake's tub. Eek! Now I just heat the room to 84.

Another thing to remember, use a thermostat that has a good record. You don't want one overheating and killing the snake or causing a fire. Sometimes it's better to spend a little more in the beginning...

If you are on a budget, check out the Hyrdofarm thermostats on Amazon...they work great for the price and are adequate for a small collection.

And flexwatt is definitely the way to go. You can get it for dirt cheap, and even cheaper if you know how to solder and you wire it yourself.


EDIT: Just saw that nimbly already mentioned the Hydrofarm...they are definitely a reliable entry level stat :)

This-

http://www.reptilebasics.com/heat-tape

And this-

http://spyderrobotics.com/

I don't care for hydrofarms. Had one on a qt tub once, but now its gone. ;)



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Not everyone can afford proportional thermostats, hydrofarms work if they work, I've bought a few and had one doa.
They aren't ideal but they work(not for me, but they do work, lol)

Human heat pads, even if you find one that won't shut off after 2 hours, will still need to be regulated because they get far too hot for a uth.

Or if you're on the super budget I was on - lamp dimmer. It takes a fair bit of fine tuning to get the temperature right. :P
http://www.lowes.com/pd_70717-539-TT-300NLH-WH_0__