I use a dual UTH system with dual T-stats to control the hot side and cool side temps. You seem to have your temps under control no matter how you manage it. The whole if it aint broke... The UTHs uncluttered the system a bit but I feel like with a dual system you need a T-stats constantancy and a back up as the snake cannot escape the heat if something goes horribly wrong. This is a variation on a room heater in my case I have snake enclosures in 3 rooms and a rack and 2 others in a single 'snake room' but the house is old and draughty so a room heater is very costly and a poor solution in my case. Often the way if you have only one or two animals heating a whole room to 80 seems a bit much.
A CHE admits no light (true IR) we can see, a red bulb is in the near IR spectrum but in both cases the snake sees them. The labial heat pits and connected to the base of the optic nerve so the information passed by them is processed in the optical centre of the brain. There isn't really as far as the snake is concerned a difference CHE's are likely a bit more heat per watt but I am guessing. It depends on how cool the space is and 1000 other factors what ever works. I'd not bother myself and use some other way CHEs and bulbs can dry the enclosure out. I use a light during the day for 3 reasons,
The first and most important is I check every day for messes and I like to see well for that task and also I like the look of the enclosure so I enjoy looking at it.
The second the day/night cycle is not fully understood how it relates to breeding so rather than setting that up in case I do decide to breed them I already have it done.
The last is that the day and night cycle is poorly understood how if effects the animal yes they have been kept in the dark 24/7 and been healthy but does it effect them in some subtle way that is not understood. There is naturally sun in the wild and I personally try to build a captive environment that simulates the natural one as closely as I can, that means artificial light as the room is a dark one. If there is sunlight coming in and the environmental controls are set up to manage that I'd use natural sun light but no such luck.
Hope my musings help a bit,
Alex
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