Quote Originally Posted by Jazi View Post
Heat lamp only raised the temps a few degrees in the course of two (now three) hours. So his hot spot is STILL nearly 20 degrees too cold at 75F. Was wondering if a human heating pad would safely boost the temps until I run to the store and back, but first I have to wait for the bus and then it's an hourly trip, so he'll be stuck in a cold cage for at least the next two hours.

Temperature of the UTH was being gauged by the thermostat which as I've said reports the heating pad was only getting to about 74ish and through the substrate according to my digital thermometer translates to a hot spot of about 72 (without the lamp). Snake is in my shirt warming up, so I plugged the UTH directly into the wall to see if it was a thermostat failure and (without setting it up) plugged the spare into a DIFFERENT outlet to see if that one was working. After about an hour both UTHs are still way too cold at 70F (so says temp gun).
Don't use a human heating pad - you aren't supposed to run those when you are asleep, so why risk an electrical fire or burn when you aren't even there? When it's only a few hours, your ambient temp is much more important than a hot spot. Worry about getting ambient over 75 for while you're gone, not the hot spot.