I have my CHE on a rheostat(lamp dimmer) which works fine. Just got to dial it in to the right ambient temp. If you do use a thermostat, be sure to use a proportional dimming style thermostat as a proportional can cause heat lamps to flicker rapidly as they cycle on/off really really fast. Dimming styles just reduce the voltage to the device but still keep power to it like a smart lamp dimmer. As far as I know, all Herpstats have the dimming feature and I think only 1 model of the VE have dimming.