Ideally, you want a thermal gradient so the snake can choose what temperature it wants. That's how they regulate their body temperature and it's a natural part of their behavior. Different types of enclosures have different thermal properties, and the temperature of your house affects it too.
If your house is warmer, a glass enclosure will make it easier to create an appropriate gradient, because the temperature will drop off from one side to the other, whereas with a PVC enclosure the two sides might not be that far apart. If your house is colder, the temperature will probably drop off too far from one side to the other, whereas another material might retain enough heat for the gradient to be correct. But you can always add insulation to the outside of a glass enclosure (and also cover however much of the screen you need to) to reduce heat loss, and that will help regulate the gradient.
You just have to try it. Although if you tell us what range of room temperatures you expect and what kind of cage you have, we might be able to take better guesses as to what you might need. They'll still be guesses though.
I agree with placing the thermostat probe so that it dangles down just above the substrate, where it can't be sat on or peed on. Then you can use one of those indoor/outdoor thermometers with a probe you stick out the window, with the probe on the warm side and the thermometer on the cool side. That will tell you the temperatures on both sides at a glance. Unless you're particular about that sort of thing, I wouldn't even worry about the thermometer probe being attached securely or anything. If it gets shoved around, nothing bad will happen like it could with a thermoSTAT probe.
This is just for your information so you can keep an eye on the temperatures, humidity, and gradient, which you need to keep an eye on because things will change as the temperature of your house changes (for example, when the weather changes or if you use a programmable thermostat to save energy by heating less when no one is home).
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