Quote Originally Posted by Eric Alan View Post
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.
I have my thermostat set at 88degrees and that is when I am getting high 90s surface temps with my temp gun. I can certainly lower the setting of the thermostat but was worried when the air temp on the hot side goes to 83/84 on my accurite that it was too low a reading. But, if your saying that doesn't matter as long as the surface temp is reading 90 then in reality, I don't even need the accurite in the cage except for humidity readings. Is this correct. I should rely on what my temp gun is telling me - correct??

Thanks for your help with this.