Quote Originally Posted by franken_stein View Post
I'm having a bit of trouble with this, too. Everyone says that a thermostat/rheostat is essential for the UTH, so I got two lamp dimmers - one for the UTH, one for my heat lamp. I don't really know how much I'll be using the one for the UTH though... on full blast, it seems I'm just BARELY warm enough on the warm side! So I ended up placing my heat lamp over the hot spot, too.

Does anyone else do this?
Temperatures are not to be guessed at, you need to know what the temps are especially if your using a UTH.
Dimmers only work well in a temperature regulated room, otherwise they are useless.
Thermostats are a must for uth's as is having a good probed thermometer.
Without a probed thermometer you will find it difficult to read the uth's temperature, dial thermometers won't do it, and guessing is risking your snakes health.

Generally the heat lamp will cover a portion of the warm end and a portion of the middle of the tank leaving the cool end cooler than the rest of the tank.