Please look over a newbie's checklist!

Yoinks those thermostats can get expensive.

Is there any advantage to those over something like this which is a third the cost:

http://www.captaindragonreptilesuppl...p16896206.html

Don't get me wrong, I try not to skimp on areas of animal health or wellness, but I also try to keep reasonable budgets :D

Well, I have a Johnson and a Ranco but I also have 5 of those ZooMed ReptiTemp 500R stats. They are a dial type, and so you have to tweak a lot, but they work. Great for using until you can save up for the bigger better stat. Eventually you should look into getting something more precise, but that will do fine in the meantime.

Currently I'm running my QT BP tubs off two of those, and no problem, even in weird weather Colorado. :)

Okay, I have my ReptiTemps for the moment, and I picked up an IR tempgun too. I've done some checking and it looks like the basement is an ambient temp of about 67 right now. I'm sure it will be a few degress colder in winter.

So, I should have enough heating with the 11"x17" UTH and 8"x8" UTH, but I'm curious about handling. How long is a ball okay out of the heated area in a cooler room? Does it make a difference if they are being held or not?

I think you're going to have a hard time getting the ambients up in the tank with just a UTH; that's pretty cold.... But that's what you do now: get it set up and running and tweak it some and see where it is in a week. Also, you might try some rigid insulation around the sides and back to help keep the heat in.

Well I have to bring the ambient up 13 degrees or so on the cool side, and 20+ on the warm side. I thought UTHs were particularly good at this?

Should I be looking at a species that will handle 5 degrees or so cooler? I can also get Jungle Carpet Pythons, but I'm not sure that this terrarium will be big enough for one...

I do need daylight bulbs for this terrarium anyhow, should I just get a pair of 50w or so clamp lamps and let the temps drop a bit at night?

To some extent but it won't raise the ambients 20 degrees; there is a point when you'll cook the snake :O
Radiant heat panels help a lot with ambient temps but I don't think you can use them in a tank because they are installed on the 'ceiling'.

Hmm, in a room that cold it'll be really hard to get the ambients up without a space heater (which might be a good idea for you). You can raise it a little with lamps, but not enough.

I may have missed it, but what are your temps now on all sides? Have you insulated the tank with cork or foam board?

As for other snakes that could handle those temps, what about a corn? :) They are SO much easier to care for, handle lower temps, and are really sweet. Just to let you know.

I disagree on the carpets; I've used them to great success. I have 2 carpets for each cage, one in the cage and one out that I can clean. The thing I love about th carpets is a) you can cut small holes in the carpet and thread thermostat probes in so that they don't move around and stay right above your UTH and b) your snake can't get to the glass where the UTH is adhered and c) it makes it easy when cleaning the cage; roll up the carpet with aspen, put it in a bag and take it outside to your trash can/dumpster, shake!

Oh, another thing is that the carpet stops a lot of the shifting and rearranging of the subtract that your snakey is bound and determined to do. =)

I wash them with mild dish detergent and a few drops of bleach and rinse really well, then hang outside to dry and cook a bit in the sun. Bam, clean.

You could try a 75w infrared. I run that all day and it heats up the middle and cool side of the tank middle to 85 and the "cold" side to about 78. Good luck!

To answer a few questions:

The tank will have a foam decoration on three sides, varying from 1/2" to 2" in thickness.

Space heater is not really useful in this area, the entire basement is open concept.

I expect temps to increase once the reef aquarium is in. About 235g of water heated to 78 degrees will help with ambient temps.

I have to admit that I'm seriously consider that jungle carpet python now. It can handle the cooler temps, are semi-arboreal (which is something I like) and are not significantly more difficult to keep than BPs.

In any event, I'm not in a huge rush, and I have an advantage. The Crested Gecko tank is going up first with only a 8" x 8" 4w UTH for heat and two cheapo desk lamps with CFLs for Day/Night lighting. I can use my temp gun to monitor the temp in that tank and see what the gradient looks like.