I have a new baby ball coming in (should be here tomorrow)
This will be my first ball and needless to say we are excited.

I have been reading and absorbing as much as I can in preperation of his arrival.

This weekend I scrubbed out the aquarium we have for him (20G) and got it ready to go. I have a Walmart thermostat with inside/outside and humidity measurements. The probe is attached inside of the hide to get an accurate reading. I have coconut bark as a substrate. The screen top has been covered with lexan and I am currently playing with how much to leave uncovered to keep humidity at the appropriate level.

My problem is that the temp sucks with a UTH. The ambient is ~68 and the temp in the hide (which is over the UTH) is ~73.

Im going to replace the UTH and make sure that it is working correctly (It really doesnt get that warm). What I am wondering is can I go with a larger UTH so that the overall ambient is raised?

Thinking about going with the cobramat as it says its designed to run @ 100 degrees, which should work very well with out house being in the high 60's during the really cold parts of winter.

Finally, is there any disadvantage in wrapping the silver radiant insulatation on the sides and back of the tank to retain some of the heat?