Concerns about my new BP - Please help!

[Coluber42]

What do you use on a timer to signify a change from day to night? Should I get a secondary light that doesn’t put out heat to turn on and off each day? Do you leave your CHE on day and night, and is it black? Should I put the CHE and UTH on the same thermostat? If so, where should I put the probe? Or is it better to have two thermostats, one for the CHE and one for the UTH?

Separate heat sources need separate thermostats, one probe for each. The probe for the UTH goes between the UTH and the bottom of the enclosure. You don't set that one for the desired surface temperature, because the surface temperature will be lower. You set it where it needs to be to get the surface temperature you want, which you check with a temp gun over the course of several hours at least and adjust as needed. It's helpful to have a thermometer probe on the inside surface of the enclosure (i.e, the hottest place your snake can get at) so you can verify that it isn't getting too hot even when it's insulated by substrate.

A CHE does not emit any visible light. You can leave it on day and night, and unless you keep your house unusually warm, you probably need it both day and night.

Lighting to create a day/night cycle is more optional. If there's ambient light in the room from windows, that's enough to tell your snake what time of day it is. Some keepers use additional lights, such as for live plants that are in the enclosure or to provide the snake with UVB. Snakes don't require UVB in the same way that many lizards do; they certainly won't get sick without it. But they can see it and they will sometimes bask under it. Those fluorescent tube lights for UVB, or LED's that you may use for viewing or for plants, would be kept on a timer. Neither of those produce very much heat, although they do produce a little bit. Alternatively, you could even use incandescent or halogen bulbs for daytime viewing (again, on a timer), which do produce heat and which the snake might also choose to bask under.

In any case, if your CHE and UTH are on thermostats they will automatically adjust as needed for any heat put out by any lighting you choose to use, as well as adjusting for changes in the room temperature over the course of the day. That is what thermostats are for.

So in short, worry about getting your heating situation figured out and with everything on thermostats first. If you want to add lighting once that is done, you should be able to do so without changing your heating setup. If a light can raise the temperature in the cage by a few degrees, then the thermostat will compensate by making the CHE run at slightly lower power when the light is on. Make sense?