Deep blue LED lights. They come in two types externally ballast and internally (not sure ballast is the right name) the majority are internal (especially aquarium lights) they run in the high 90s The white FLD lights come on around 8-8pm and the blue run 7pm-9am an hour over lap (I have dimmable FLD so they drop over the hour). The blue lights hold 8-10º F over ambients. The whole set up dimming bulbs and all is less than a RHP and using regular FLD lights would be much less.
My typical temps 80º surface temp cool and 90º surface hot, stable.
Ambient temps are the coolest at 4am about 77º
they gain about 1 degree every hour and a half to two hours until they max at around 84-5º then they start to drop again.
The problem isn't enough temps but spilling unwanted temps in the summer. During summer I often have the white on in the am and off in the late am to afternoon then on for a few hours again. As the room is light it isn't a huge switch.
I can't say this for certain but with my 11 royals the ones housed in enclosures (6) feed better than the 5 in the rack. I switch them every 18 months and the feeding habits switch with them. I believe that this is mostly due to the natural shift of ambient air temps in my enclosures over the unchanging ambient and surface temps of the rack. It is just a pet therory but the only difference I can figure. The enclosures animals eat 22% more than the rack animals. It has got to be air temps or light cycle one or the other or both. Not sure it is all guess work.
Why people seem to think RHP change ambient air temps I cannot fathom. in floor radient heat and in ceiling radient heat is basically the same and yet it always seems keepers believe they are drastically different.
Reptile basics FAQ on RHPs
"Infrared Heat tends to heat objects more than the air, much like the natural sunlight outdoors. This type of heat mimics real sunlight both in the direction it comes from and its penetration into the muscle tissue. IR heat has been shown to have a therapeutic effect on sick and injured animals as well. Your reptiles will spend less time basking and receive a much greater benefit from it."
Royals do not 'bask' and as we all know the sun does not heat up air.
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