Question about reading temps

[Eric Alan]

But does it matter if the air temp on the hot side is registering 88/89 on the accurite meter but the temp gun is showing 93/94 on the surface?? If I lower the temp to accommodate the temp gun reading then my air temp would be off.

Just trying to make sure I am doing this correctly. My assumption is the accurite reading the air temp in most important since my heat source is an RHP and it's not like the snake is laying on the heat source - its coming from above.

If you think about how a RHP works, this makes perfect sense. They work by heating the surface of everything within their line of sight. The effect of this heats the surrounding environment and, as a by-product of doing this, the air around those objects. It only makes sense that the air temp would be slightly cooler than the surface temps when using a RHP. Since snakes lay on the surface, those are the temps you should have dialed in most accurately. The ambient air temps can go down to the mid-70°F range and you'd still be good as long as the surface temps are where you need them to be.

In summary, I recommend turning down that RHP a few degrees. 90°F is about the hottest they need in order to be able to do their thing effectively.