I recently got a dimming thermostat in order to keep the surface temp on my basking spot at about 102 in the day and with the winter coming to keep it warm enough in there. My question is...can I use a ceramic heat emitter 24/7 or does he need the additional life from a basking bulb? I have a 18” T8 UVB bulb and another very small light on the cool side to keep it the correct temp.
Since the T8 is relatively dim, I'd definitely use a bright bulb as well as the T8. You can run the CHE on the thermostat if you want, but if it's a dimming thermostat you can hook it up to a halogen flood light and it should be able to control it pretty well.