Well, a divided T8 would certainly be cheaper. That might be the way to go. In any case it seems everyone agrees 12" high is plenty of height. One other question I have is about heat. I was going to order the cages with both an overhead radiant heat panel and belly heat. Ali at AP strongly advised me against that and said it was totally unnecessary. She said the Radiant heat panel would provide a "hot" end at whatever temp I set the thermostat for while keeping the rest of the cage nice and warm. She said that's the way most of their customers order cages for BPs.......only radiant heat panel and no belly heat. She also said that if I later decided I wanted belly heat I could buy their Flexxwatt and easily install it myself. What do you think?