Heat Lamp Question

[Blam18]

Thanks! So, it appears it would be waaaaaay cheaper to just buy two individual ones. LOL

[JRLongton]

Thanks! So, it appears it would be waaaaaay cheaper to just buy two individual ones. LOL

Buying two separate switching Tstats, is going to be cheaper. But you may want to understand why one is so much more expensive than the other.

Most less expensive Tstats (like the venerable Jumpstart) are switching Tstats, meaning they are running either 100% (on) or 0% (off), no in between. Hook that up to your red bulb and it is going to go on and off, on and off. This will shorten the life of incandescent bulbs, slightly shorten the life of a CHE, but not effect the life of a UTH at all.

So if you want to use only UTHs, I'd go with just Jumpstarts, inexpensive and easy.

Proportional Tsats on the other hand, apply only so much power as is needed to raise the temp of the probe to the desired setting. You'll find that most proportional Tstats are much more efficient in that once they find that "sweet spot" they tend to stay in that area. I'm currently using a Herpstat to run a UTH and it's been running a pretty steady 28%, or so, for a few weeks now. Were you to use one on your incandescent bulb, I suspect (NOTE: My guess only. I've never run a bulb on a proportional Tstat) you'd find that it would be on more often than not, but be quite dim. I also imagine that the life of the bulb would be lengthened since, though on most time, it would be under less heat stress.

Just stuff to think about. Lots of people run massive collections on Jumpstarts alone.

[Blam18]

That makes perfect sense. I will definitely add a proportional tstat to my "wish list", however, in the meantime I will get a Jumpstart that fits my current "budget list".

[JRLongton]

Jumpstart is a great option. In my post I made sure to referred to it as "inexpensive" as it is by no means "cheap".