Your father is probably assuming that the heating element is drawing a lot of wattage but in fact is only using 25 watts. What would be the relevant thing would be not to exceed the capacity of the power strip or of course the circuit that the power strip is plugged into (which should be listed on the power strip).You would need to total up how may watts that everything that is plugged into the power strip is using. My issue with a hovabator is that I don't trust the wafer style thermostat to keep a consistent heat. I use a hovabator but plug it into a herpstat thermostat. And I have only used it for leopard gecko eggs. Many here will tell you that a hovabator will ruin ball python eggs. in my opinion it is the thermostat that is unreliable. It is made for chicken eggs and is not as consistent as is needed for ball python eggs.