best heating method

[petshopguy]

I have multiple tanks to heat up to 85 degrees or so and I was wondering if anyone has experience on the best method to heat up 10+aquariums. I am interested in a method that is fairly accurate in temperature and also cost effective (we all want to spend our $ on the critters, not the equipment). I am not sure if heating mats (ZooMed) for each tank is the best method or not. Keeping the entire room at a constant temp is out of the question due to other critters' temp needs.
Thx for any help,
Bob

 

[mischaaussems]

When you place a heating mat between two tanks you can heat both a the same time. Simple light bulbs give lots of heat. If you use real plants the light of this bulb is insufficient, but for heating it's ok. A 10 to 15 Watt bulb should do the trick. In this way it's easy to create warm and cold spots in your terrarium. The spiders can choose their own temperature this way.

 

[ScorpDemon]

Heat tape might be the answer

You might want to look into heat tape. uses very little electricity, you can cut it to whatever length you need and use it on several tanks from one plug-in.
http://www.bigappleherp.com/Flex-Watt-Heat-Tape#

 

[Dom]

For dry tanks I use heat tape for wide area heating or heat rope (i think that's what it's called) for more small area/gradient heating.
For moist tanks I find overhead heating is much more effective. Ceramic bulbs are costly to buy but seem to pay for themselves by not burning out as standard heat bulbs do. I put the bulbs on a good dimmer to control the heat. The cheap dimmers tend to crap out if you turn them less than half way or if you have a brief power outage. If you've got the cash the helix thermostats would be much nicer.