are you using it for ambient or basking? mine is set at 85 for my BRB but it can get the substrate pretty hot, my apartment is also about 75+ which is terrible for me, but great for all my critters, i don't even need supplemental heat for the geckos or candoia. sorry back to heat panel, like i said i use mine for the warm side and it works fine for me, even in winter when i turn it up to 90 it seems to do the job