Heating pad temperature

I have been keeping my heating pad (human) on medium - unfortunately this requires me to have a light as well as the pad to keep the temps good. Should I just up my heat pad to high and ditch the light or are BP tummies not as sensitive to heat as their tops? The last thing I want is a burn. I put newspaper in the bottom then my inch and a half of substrate (coconut husk bark)
What is the safe heat for human heat pads? (mine has low medium high or 1, 2, 3)

I also use about an inch to inch-and-a-half of loose substrate, and I have to keep my HHP on high to get a decent surface temp.

It's definitely a matter of what your personal situation is. If I set my UTH to a high enough temp to get the whole heat gradient I need for the tank, then I risk burning the snake on the hot spot. So I use a combo if UTH and an overhead light. However...I don't have to worry about humidity problems. I'm not exactly sure how I would set up a bp in our basement where the temps are always chilly.

If you are using an enclosure with straight enough sides you can easily "wrap" or mount sized cardboard or styro sheets on the sides to act as an insulator and ensure you are not using an open-topped solution (like a wire-screen top). If you are mod, it using the duct-tape or contac paper. Best approach in the screen situation is to cover the inside (bottom) so you can also mask that surface this helps prevent your snake from getting rub wounds on the nose (we've all seen them straining upward and testing that surface with thier noses and they often have to make contact to help balance or stabilize themselves).

mine is always on high

you can get a lamp dimmer from home depot for 10 bucks,its the kind the heat pad will plug into and the dimmer plugs into the wall.Than just turn your heat pad to high and fine tune it to what you want. You can even mark the dimmer with a magic marker where to set it for different temps.

Man I dont know how you guys can keep your heat pads on high or med without a dimmer switch to fine tune.
I have paper towels down then an inch or so of reptibark and I still need my heat pad on med but then only half way up on the dimmer. My dimmer is a slide type that you plug in recepticle then plug heat pad into it and I did as Beaglegod suggested and marked with a sharpie for on, off and the best heat selection.
If i left heat pad on med or even low without the dimmer the temps would be 96-100.

Might be related to the amount of clearance folks have between their heating pad and the bottom of the enclosure. None of ours are sitting flush on anything - they are all jacked up to allow roughly 1/8 to 1/4 inch so too much heat doesnt get built up or trapped. Also ambient room temp differences are bound to come into play.

Excellent point, Smulkin! I was wondering what might cause such a wide disparity between HHP readings!

The good thing about the lamp dimmer set up is you can have more control over temps and by marking whats 10,15, degrees above room temp it makes it easy to adjust. As a side note though if your herps are in a fairly small room Honeywell makes a fantastic space heater that has a digital thermometer that you can set up to 85 degrees,keeps my enclosures at 80 regardless of how cool the house is and theres no worries about the room getting to hot since the thermostat automaticaly shuts it off if its 85 in the room. For 50 dollars its worth it (hot spot 90 ambient temp 80) no worries.