The real worth of an RHP?

I stumbled upon a post mentioning RHPs and so I looked them up, only to find conflicting information about them thus getting rather confused about them, so basically I'm wondering how exactly they work and if they're worth getting for a ball python? If one would be beneficial or detrimental? I'm really new to this whole herp thing so I find a lot of the explanations and discussions about them that I've come across to be a bit difficult to understand (hence any and all possibly stupid questions), so I'm not even entirely sure how RHPs work, just that they heat things up like natural sunlight does (or fairly close at any rate)? Also would it be too much to use both an RHP and an under tank heating pad (since I know they need heat on their bellies to digest their food)?

They do not need belly heat that is a myth. It doesn't matter how the snake gets its temp up, just that it does. That being said the easiest way to provide a warm spot for the snake is an under tank heater. If your snake is not in a room that the temp is at least 80 degrees (all the time) then you need to do something to boost the ambient temp. The UTH will do nothing for the air temp. So this is where an RHP or a heat lamp would come in. So yes you could use both a RHP and an UTH depending on the circumstances.

What has been explained to me is that RHP's, just like UTH's do very little to increase ambient temperatures (which I understand), what they do is heat objects that are near by.

With that said, I have a T8 from Animal Plastics that is divided to house two ball pythons. I use one strip of 12 inch THG Heat Tape in the middle to provide the belly heat, and two 28 watt RHP's (one on each side). I have not tested what my ambient temps would be without the RHP's, but my ambient temps with them will vary from 78-82 degrees. My ac for my house is kept at 72 degrees. Both my RHPs' are on thermostats and are not set to turn on unless the ambient temps drop below 80 degrees.

Yes technically a RHP is going to heat the objects in the cage, however those objects will in turn heat the air. The net result is the air in the cage ges warmer. How much heating occurs depends how strong the RHP is. I think 28watts are pretty small, RBI heat panels go all the way up to 160 watts.

Here is a link from Reptile Basics that might help as well: http://www.reptilebasics.com/radiant-panel-faq

Rhp are a VERY controversial subject in here. You are going to find some people that swear by them and you are going to find some that are going to tell you that terrestrial snakes such as ball pythons will not benefit from them and you will also find some that are going to tell you that they are not as economical as UTH. Here is my take on them.... I have been running them in my system for about 7 months now ( which includes this past winter!) I live in Chicago so the weather here can get VERY cold. I also live in a very old house that is drafty so I needed something that could keep up with all of that . I am running a properly sized RHP in all of my cages ( the key is Properly sized. If you are not sure what size you need for your cage than talk to Bob at Pro Products and he will set you up! ) Another key thing to mention here is that you must maintain a proper " head" clearance. My cages are all made from 3/4" plywood ( so they have a good insulation factor) and have a height of 24". The RHP are plugged into a herpstat thermostat. I personally have found that with my set up I do not need to run an UTH. My ambient Temps stay at 86 deg hot side, 78 deg cold side and basking spot under the RHP is 92 deg. ( I will add this for technical reasons. RHP do not heat the air, they heat objects which in turn raise the air temps. A trick I use is I have a thick piece of stone in each of my cages to absorb the heat ) Uth's do very little to raise ambient temps and if the thermostat fails you are going to have a very badly burnt snake. I do not ever have to worry about burns because if my thermostat fails the snake will simply move to the cold side to escape the heat if it gets too hot! ( I know, a snake can move away from a UTH to but for what ever reason they never seen to move away from belly heat ,rather they just stay there and get burned! hence the reason heat rocks are frowned upon. ) So in my opinion RHP are safer than UTH. I have also seen a very dramatic change in my electric bills since I have switched from Heat lamps to RHP. So to some it up. In my opinion, under the right conditions and paired with a high quality thermostat, a RHP can be a great heating option!!!!

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Originally Posted by norwegn113

Rhp are a VERY controversial subject in here. You are going to find some people that swear by them and you are going to find some that are going to tell you that terrestrial snakes such as ball pythons will not benefit from them and you will also find some that are going to tell you that they are not as economical as UTH. Here is my take on them.... I have been running them in my system for about 7 months now ( which includes this past winter!) I live in Chicago so the weather here can get VERY cold. I also live in a very old house that is drafty so I needed something that could keep up with all of that . I am running a properly sized RHP in all of my cages ( the key is Properly sized. If you are not sure what size you need for your cage than talk to Bob at Pro Products and he will set you up! ) Another key thing to mention here is that you must maintain a proper " head" clearance. My cages are all made from 3/4" plywood ( so they have a good insulation factor) and have a height of 24". The RHP are plugged into a herpstat thermostat. I personally have found that with my set up I do not need to run an UTH. My ambient Temps stay at 86 deg hot side, 78 deg cold side and basking spot under the RHP is 92 deg. ( I will add this for technical reasons. RHP do not heat the air, they heat objects which in turn raise the air temps. A trick I use is I have a thick piece of stone in each of my cages to absorb the heat ) Uth's do very little to raise ambient temps and if the thermostat fails you are going to have a very badly burnt snake. I do not ever have to worry about burns because if my thermostat fails the snake will simply move to the cold side to escape the heat if it gets too hot! ( I know, a snake can move away from a UTH to but for what ever reason they never seen to move away from belly heat ,rather they just stay there and get burned! hence the reason heat rocks are frowned upon. ) So in my opinion RHP are safer than UTH. I have also seen a very dramatic change in my electric bills since I have switched from Heat lamps to RHP. So to some it up. In my opinion, under the right conditions and paired with a high quality thermostat, a RHP can be a great heating option!!!!

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I agree with everything except one thing. :) RHP's, in my opinion, are on thing you can use a lesser of a quality of a thermostat on if your wanted. If mounted on top of a cage, which I assume most are, you can get away with a on/off thermostat like Hydrofarm verse a proportional thermostat like Herpstat for example.

Okay, I have a few questions here:

What exactly is a T-8? I've seen it mentioned here a few times, but I can't actually seem to find out what it actually is.

What would be the properly sized RHP for a 4'L X2'W X16"H enclosure?

I've also heard that heat tape can be dangerous and can burn your snake - is that true? (Abed likes to repeatedly climb up the background on his current tank and kamikaze himself off of it so I don't trust his survival instincts very well)

Sorry for all the questions. I just find this very confusing right now (hopefully something experience will change), but I still wanna make sure I do my best for Abed.

T8 is a 4x2x1 cage made by Animal Plastics. Your best bet is to call either Pro Products or Reptile Basics and explain to them what you are keeping, the cage type and size, and the high and low temps in your room. I'd say a 75-80w RHP will probably be about right, but its best to call and find out.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-With-Pictures!