i need experienced keepers' opinions

[Pythonfriend]

Not to mention the room being just plain uncomfortable to be in. That would mean keeping a full room at 80* minimum, and while some people's reptile rooms are thermoregulated that way, it's always with HVAC ducting and ventilation, not a space heater pushing stagnant air around.

Overall, it would cause more problems.

you know snakebytes TV, the youtube show from BHB reptiles?

now you know why they always run around in t-shirt or topless.

it can be done. of course you need to have the air circulating. maybe use a ceiling fan, or some smaller ones in the right places, use the tempgun to check that its the right temperature everywhere, from the lowest tub to the highest.

about the energy consumption: with all devices hooked to a thermostat it depends on how much heat is lost and how hard the heaters have to work to keep the temps where they should be. In a cool room heat tape can consume quite a lot of energy. If the room is just slightly below the optimum, the heat tape will require almost no energy because most of the time it isnt heating.

but still, if you go from electric tub heating to electric room heating, energy consumption will of course go up. when it comes to turning electricity into heat, there really is no "more effective" or "less effective". the electricity consumed is equal to the heat produced, unless something else like light is produced alongside. Heating the room means heating all the air, the walls, and not just the tubs.

When it comes to energy costs, there is only one reason why heating the whole room is more effective: You dont use electricity. You use oil or natural gas or hot water delivered via pipe from a nearby powerstation or wood pellets or geothermal, whatever is most effective given the infrastructure on site. If you take that out of the equation, and consider heating the room using electricity, it would only save some maintenance, and the cost to buy heat tape, things like that, but the electricity bill will go up.

I've had snakes die on me after eating when I didn't notice that their heat tape was off even though my snake room is plenty warm. In my opinion they DO need that hot spot.

BHB reptiles is the biggest breeder in the american continents and doesnt use heat tape or hotspots or anything. they have their giant ball python room at one temp, their giant coloubrid room at a different temp, their incubator room at incubator temps, and some smaller rooms that have the right temps for some other species. Do it right and it works.