When in doubt, try to mimic what the natural environment would be like. Ball pythons spend most of the day hiding in burrows and such, where humidity is higher and light shining in from the outside during the day or not at all depending on how deep the snake is hiding. Direct light shining on it is not necessarily a bad thing... There are always exceptions to the rule... So if it is eating, shedding, healthy and the light is on a cycle, it can work. The snake will usually tell you what works and what doesn't. If you want to use light for display only, led is a better choice so it won't mess up with the temps in the cage that you already had it dialed in. If you need ambient or additional heating plus viewing at night, infrared (not red) is an option. Ambient lighting would be as close to what they would experience in the wild. That is, if heating is not a concern.
CHE is recommended because we 'think' they can see the spectrum of light at night from other bulbs. In lizards, yes, but scientific evidence is weak in that department and none exists for snakes at this time (or probably ever. Snakes are not the greatest test subjects because they respond to almost every stimuli the same way...and the way they measure it for lizards are disruption in sleep patterns. How do you observe (short from implanting nodes inside and outside the head) that from a snake with no eye lids?
So people err on the side of caution and suggests CHE over infrared bulbs. But lizards and snakes evolved so far apart from each other in thousands of years time... The comparison is practically apples and oranges. Also, CHE comes with risks too: fire hazard if used with the wrong fixture (common mistake), must must must be on thermostat because of how hot it gets, and dries up the tank. CHE is best for those cold snaps if controlled properly. It must also be kept where cats cannot jump and knock it down in fear of fire hazard.
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