My advice is buy RHPs for the PVC cages. They will work much better than the whole mess of heat cables, tapes, pads etc. You don't need belly heat for a snake as long as the ambient is good and a RHP will take care of that. Although if you do prefer belly heat as well, then go for it. Belly heat is a poor heater for air though so unless you keep the room in the high 70s, you will probably need a RHP as well. That is why I just use a RHP only as it works fine. You definitely want a T-stat though for anything. If you cant afford a fancy one, just get a Hydrofarm. They work fine. But like I said, I like to keep things simple which is why I just run RHPs exclusively and use Herpstat to run them. You can RHPs from either Pro Products or Reptile Basics. They both work. I personally use Pro Product ones but from what I have gathered from research, the big difference in Pro Products use an aluminum housing while Reptile Basics use a plastic housing. The Price difference is about $15 I think too last I checked with the Pro Products being more expensive.