I choose to heat the entire room (11x18) with a 150 W ceramic heater. It's pretty much the same as having a giant enclosure and the Herpistat would work the same way on a crabitat with a smaller bulb. I have the furnace mostly closed off to this room so that it doesn't end up overheating the room and so the humidity stays higher. I also have a HEPA filter running that helps circulate air and the temperature.
I REALLY love this thing. I spent 5 minutes setting it up and haven't touched it since! Temp has been perfect.
This model has one probe and can do either temp or humidity. They make other models that can do both, or can run even more probes for multiple tanks. For heat you can choose dimming (rheostat) or straight on/off for adjustments. With humidity it will control a fogger or humidifier when it gets too low.
It also has a built in night cycle option so you can set the day and night temps to be different. I have mine drop 5 degrees at night for more natural heating. I really like that it comes with a ramping feature as well, you get to set how much time the day to night and vice versa transition takes. I have mine set to adjust slowly over an hour.
The menu takes a little while to get used to, there is only three buttons - an enter button, and up/down buttons. It's short and sweet though.
The probe it comes with has a 10 foot cord. The power cord is longer as well, I think 6 feet.
It also comes with a small built in battery so if power is lost or you need to move it the settings are saved as well as the time. The only time the temp settings resets is if you change the mode from heating to humidity.
I like that these thermostats will fail into the off position so there will be no roasted critters in the event of trouble. They also come with back ups to prevent damage and overheating.
The also have an optional audible alarm that will sound when the temp gets to a level that you set. I have mine set to alert us if it gets over 90 or under 72. It's a nice feature in case the bulb goes without me noticing or in case I turn it off and forget to turn it back on. That has happened before!
There are other companies out there that make similar, but I chose this one because of the safety features and also because the night cycle was built in. With others the night cycle is an optional add on unit that costs more.
I spend $140 on my Herpistat and I feel it was a great investment. I now have 24 reptiles/amphibians, 40 some hermits, and around 80 scorpions in this room, so for keeping them safe and comfortable all winter long it was totally worth it! When we get around to building the new crabitat I plan on getting the next model up that has dual controls so that it will make things easier there as well.
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