Quote Originally Posted by mr. s View Post
Just gotta play it by ear. We have all struggled with that balancing act. Just recently I realized that I have a walk in closet that maintains an ambient temperature of 80 in the day if I keep a light on, so I moved almost all my snakes in there onto shelves and it is working great. Everyone has different problems.
Set the uth up, with a dimmer, check warm and cool side temperatures and see if it needs something more. Usually, the lamp is for ambient temperatures (air temperature), so it can go on the cool side or the middle even, as long as the hot spot does not get much over 92 or so. As many people have mentioned, burning is a real problem.
It is a lot to take in and seems so complicated at first, but we have all been through it at some point with our first snake.
Good luck, and keep the questions coming!

When you refer to the "hot spot," is this the basking/substrate area that needs to be around 90 degrees? The ambient air can be a bit lower, correct?

Also, he's been laying on the basking side for awhile now because I was obviously completely confused about what basking means and he has not gotten burned. I don't have a thermostat so I assume that the temperature is right not to burn him and he hasn't burrowed either.