Hi herpers, I posted something similar yesterday so forgive the repetition. Slightly different thrust to the question today.

I've had my bp only a few days. She's in a tub w/2 hides, a UTH under one side of the tub, Acu-rite thermometer/hygrometer on cool side w/probe on warm side, and Herpstat controlling the heat mat.

I have no problems at all maintaining the warm side in the low 90s, and humidity consistently runs around 58%. My problem is the temp as measured on cool side with the Acu-rite. The only way I can keep it to 80 or above is to crank a small space heater 24/7 to keep the whole room around 80.

The snake spends all her time in the cool hide - I don't think she's even ventured to the warm side of the tub yet - so I want to make sure she's warm enough in her favorite spot. I don't like leaving the house with the space heater running, for safety reasons (but thanks to the person who suggested one with a tip-over shutoff feature yesterday).

Finally getting to my question now, if you're still reading this :

If I put another UTH w/separate thermostat on the cool side to keep the floor there in the low 80s and ditch the space heater, how important would the room temp be? House is usually low 60s at night to max low 70s during the day. I understand that heat mats only provide heat to the surface they're attached to. The tub is about 6" high. Would an ambient room temp of, say, 68 be acceptable? Any and all input welcome! Trying to get it right.