Not only are they more functional but they do look nice as well. I will need a RHP due to the cold winters we have here, and the fact that my apartment has electric baseboard heat that I have to manually control independently. (no stat) Since the flexwatt sounds like a good idea I will likely order my enclosure with it installed and just get a second stat so that I know i'm good. For right now my BP (Burt) may be an only child so to speak, but if someday I'm able to add a second or third, stacking even a few of the T8's for example, would look pretty nice in my opinion. Are the locks to keep the snake in? I guess I always looked at them as more of a security measure, silly me lol.