Query: Heating tape vs. UTH's vs. Heating the whole room ??

With my corn collection growing, and I can only see it getting bigger, I've decided to make my spare bedroom the snake room. They've been in my bedroom with me, 4 in tanks, and the rest (6) in tubs. With the weather getting warmer, I want to put the Air Conditioner back into the bedroom, and moving them seems a better idea then leaving them in the room with us. We have tanks and for the others, so eventually everyone will have a lovely Viv with plenty of space, and it will be nicely displayed.

So my question, Since they are getting their own room, would anyone recommend heating the whole room vs. Under Tank Heatpad's for each tank vs. a strip of heating tape?

I know they need a hot side and cool side, so I was thinking of a central heater in the middle of the room, with each tank on the outside/against the wall of the room. The heater we have is amazing and is set to a temp, so if the room reaches above it, it turns off, and below it, it turns on. I'm bored and a dork, so I've illustrated that in the first pic. Or would a single heat tape along the side of each wall be best? That I've illustrated in the second pic. Or would someone suggest UTH's as the best pick? (not illustrated)

I'm thinking long term and which would be cheapest to run, easiest to maintain, and best to add and remove tanks from? Thoughts, and opinions would be greatly appreciated. I know most of you use Heat Strips for the tubs, but what would your thoughts eb on heating a whole room?

I've drawn the hot spots as red and cool spots as blue, cause like I said, I was bored, and I'm a dork.

I think it could work, you'd need to use radiant heat rather than convection or forced air. It would work like a heat lamp kind of but in the centre of the room. The question is can you maintain a heat gradient. You might be able to wire up heat lights for less than heat tape. just put 3 beams up, one along each corner of the room and mount light fixtures on them centred over each cage.
I think the heat tape or lights is probably easier.

The heat tape may cost more and take more setting up, but it will be much cheaper to run I believe. And much more controlable, as the heat from the heater, if it reaches the tanks, will radiate through all of the tank. So you'll very briefly have a thermal gradient, but not for long. I'd go with either heat tape or a UTH.

Heating the Room

I've always heated the entire room. It gets to the mid-80's in the day, and down to the mid 70's at night. I don't know if it's the best, but I do know that it works.

Thanks for the replies

I think I will go with Heat tape / Heat Rope as suggested by JoeJr14. Seem's like a good option. The whole room heating did seem like a good idea, but as someone mentioned, there won't be definate cold spots, just cooler spots.

Like Snakepunk, we heat an entire room in the basement. It stays at a relatively constant 80-82* in the day and down a few degrees at night.

One thing you might want to consider is the electricity load on your circuits for any set-up. We finished our room specifically for reptiles, but quickly realized that adding more heat tapes as our collection expanded would draw a heavier load than just heating the entire room.

I know a lot of people that just heat the whole room but I will put out a word of caution. I know of two instances now where the room heater went on the fritz and in one case, started a fire that destroyed his entire collection. The other was posted recently where it resulted in the snake room getting to 120 degrees before the problem was found. Luckily only one snake is still showing signs of problems. The others have recovered. I'd stick to heat tape and thermostats. My snake room stays about 82 in the summer with the air conditioning vent closed and about 80 in the winter with the vent for heat open. My thermostats almost don't do any work at all in the summer..even with the chondros.

I've seen a few people who heat/cool the whole room instead of using a method that provides a thermal gradient. I know that it works, but it is definetly not the best method. By offering a uniform temperature you also are controlling the body temperature of the snake. The animal has no way to cool down or warm up to carry out normal body functions. It could also be a source of stress as the animal is not allowed to do what it does naturally. Their is no perfect body temperature for a snake. After eating they will hold a higher body temp then they will after digestion has taken place.

I know that it has worked for a lot of people, even some well known "old timers". I just don't feel that it is the best method. It works, but probably only because corns are temperate species used to a wide variation in temperature. On a side note, I have even seen people trying this method with Boas and Pythons which I think is way worse than doing it with corns and other N.A. colubrids.