Ok, found where I read that.
Taken off of the reptilebasics.com webpage, the FAQ section:
My heat tape is not always the same temperature in all places?
Heat tape is not always as consistent as we would like it to be. While a very useful, good quality product it was not designed for use in ultra precision applications. The cost would be impractical. Over the years of use in our own collections, the thousands of racks and cages we have built and the miles of element we have sold we have found that you can expect about a 5% fluctuation over the length of a section. Often a little better, sometimes a little worse. That adds up to about 5 degrees at a 100 degree setting on your thermostat.
Is this a problem? If you are set up right at the limitations of your animals, yes. If you are set up properly, almost never. Your reptiles are going to instinctively thermoregulate themselves if you let them. This is where your design comes into play! You want to allow them to move on and off of the heated area freely. If their tub in the rack system is 3 degrees warmer than your "ideal" temp then they will spend a little less time on the heat than the animal in the next tub that is 3 degrees cooler than the ideal temp. It is what they do for a living so let them do it. Now, if you are substantially lower in temp that can lead to issues because the animal will not be able to achieve an ideal body temp. This is why a little planning a proper setup is important. You want your animal to have access to very slightly higher temps than it requires and also very slightly lower temps than it requires. With this arrangement your reptile will always be able to find a spot that is "just right".
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