i have a hood and a flourescent plant light that i am planning to use once i move my cresties over into their larger setup. since the light is flourescent it shouldn't put out too much heat, but that is something i will just have to test once i get it set up since it is plenty warm in the room already--but the amount of heat put out will be significantly less than with an incandescent bulb. the bulb itself does have uva and uvb but not as high amounts as some bulbs made specifically for reptiles--which also makes it a cheaper bulb. if you need a little extra heat (which it doesn't neccesarily sound like you do) than a low wattage incandescent bulb would probably work fine, otherwise i'd go for flourescent.