I think I went overboard on my RHP

[Gio]

Really, do yourself a favor and get a Herpstat. With the money you have spent on cages and RHPs so far, don't cheap out on the most important part. The cheapest Herpstat that can be had is the intro or intro+, which are $100 and $110 respectively. I'd recommend the + as it has a hardware safety relay in case something goes wrong. I got mine from GLK herp which offers free shipping (http://www.glkherp.com/).

Being able to set the temp and know that it will be actively monitored is completely worth it, especially if you have a cold room.

Exactly, and well said!

Here's the deal.

You can have the largest most powerful RHP manufactured and if you have it hooked into a quality Herpstat or VE Electronics stat, it will only use the amount of power necessary to get the cage to the set temp.

With a Herpstat you can even see the amount of power being used. It displays the "Set Temp" and also displays the percentage of power the unit is putting out to power the heating device.

In reality, the smaller the light, RHP or UTH, the harder those smaller items have to work to get the proper heat level depending on cage size. Would you rather have a small heat panel blasting at 100% of it's capability all of the time to keep the temps where you want them, or a larger panel only working at 20% of its capability to heat things most of the time?

If your heat panel is oversized which is possible, it still isn't a problem because the right stat will only allow it to use the power necessary to get to the desired temp.

http://www.spyderrobotics.com

http://www.vivariumelectronics.com/Products.html