Quote Originally Posted by kitedemon View Post
Snakes can see red bulbs. there is research available it is a bit hard to find and dense when you do look in university libraries under zoological papers. They see heat the heat pits are connected to the optic nerve so heat = light if it gets hot they see it. The range of colours snakes see is roughly the same as 256 colours on a computer it isn't quite as smooth but basically they are all there.

Ok OP so your question. Heat lamps do not suck humidity, they do promote very good circulation and if you live in a dry area that will mean the enclosure will equalize with the room faster. There is nothing wrong with lamps as long as the animal cannot contact the lamp. You can make heat lamps work and work well it is just a matter of balance more balancing than UTHs maybe but just balancing.
Although it does not suck out the moisture of the air as it sounds, it does reduce the humidity of the air. Because the air is heated, its capacity to hold water vapour is increased, thus reducing the relative humidity, which is what our everyday use of the word humidity means. With a lower relative humidity, evaporation and transpiration happens at a faster rate, it has a similar effect of less moisture in air of the same temperature. The snake would still have shedding problems and get dehydrated.

Such as heating air in the winter, where heating indoors always seems to make you excessively thirsty and dry, but step outside and you don't get that same effect. I have tried this, I have air with a humidity of 60-70% all year round, but with the lamp on the humidity reading inside the enclosure can drop by up to 30% lower than this. This cannot be due to the dry air coming into the enclosure, but because of the decrease of relative humidity (even though actual water vapour level is unchanged). Relative humidity is what causes the transpiration, evaporation and dehydration, not the actual moisture levels.