Another RHP in a 4x2x2 question

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Having trouble figuring out what’s best here. Have had my new guy set up in a 4x2x2 for the last 10 days or so. 80 W Vivarium Electronics RHP panel. Took his first meal no problem yesterday. Ambient on the cool side about 77. Issue is the floor on the hot side is only 80. Have a black plastic hide and the surface temp is about 86. I’ve also got about a 2 foot piece hollowed out cork log perched up on the back part of the hide. This is actually where he’s been hiding. Inside of there the ambient temp only gets into the low 80s BUT the top surface reads about 100. The sides about 92, and the bottom 82. That’s at the hottest point on the outside surface. So not knowing exactly how the RHP works, am I losing some energy heating the log surface which is closer to the RHP? Should I ditch it and use the hides alone? Or is the lower ambients inside the hide ok given the surface temps are fairly high (too high). He seems to like it and smashed his food yesterday, just poked his little head out of the opening and cranked it. Poked his head out again this evening so I temped it, was about 84.

For safety's sake, you can't have a surface temperature in your enclosure of 100F. High temperatures can very quickly injure your snake. Low temperatures take a long time to do so. So, err on the side of caution and reduce the temperature on your thermostat 10F immediately.

On the positive side, it sounds like you have all the tools for a first class set up. Post a pic and we'll help you tweak it until you have the temperature range you're looking for. This thread will show you how: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...-Post-Pictures.