Quote Originally Posted by dr del
Hi,


Yes you could attatch the cool side heating to the thermostat through the rheostat and, once it's dialed in correctly, it would keep the cool end perfect with no more interaction from you I think.

Proportionals would be the only choice if you are using a lighbulb for anything as the switching on and off would burn it out amazingly quickly - not to mention driving you daft.

I also believe proportionals maintain a smoother temperature but this isn' a deal breaker as the differences shouldn't be that much.

And shouldn't the dimmer (if used as above) be able to maintain a 10 degree difference? i.e. 82-92 or whatever?

Hmm... I'm not sure what the dimmer can do- that's why I have great people like you to harass with my newb questions!

What you were saying about running it through the rheostat- did you mean heat source-->rheostat-->t-stat-->outlet? I'm not sure how that would work out...

I am only using the bulb because:

a.)I've already got the thing- that's what the herpetologists at Pet Warehouse told me to use, along with my stick-on thermometers and hot rocks (I didn't actually buy the rock anyway!) LOL!

and,

b.) I don't really have any other way to get my cool side above 80

I'd like to get things to where I don't need anything other than the UTH and a t-stat, but we'll see. I read on another post that insulating the sides/back of the enclosure will help... and we're only talking about 5 degrees here.

I'm planning to get a Ranco ordered either this weekend or next. I hate to have to wait on it, but I can't live on hoppers, unfortunately!

Until then at least I've got an improvement over my first setup and SOME temp control!