Yes, standard household bulbs work great. You'll need a good basking area: a rock or cork bark work well, as do wooden basking platforms made of non aromatic wood. It's hard to say what you'll need as far as wattage, it all depends on the temperature of the basking spot. We recommend 105ºF - 115ºF.
You're going to need a thermometer with a probe and/or an infrared temperature gun:
Probe style:
Temperature gun:
I got my tempgun from
http://tempgun.com/products/pe1/Perhaps another member here knows where you might be able to get one locally. I heard that hobby shops sell them specifically for gas powered RC cars. Some automotive stores may also sell them as they are used to check exhaust temperatures etc.
I highly recommend a temp gun although it's not needed, the probe should be sufficient if you're short on cash.
A dimmer hooked to the basking bulb helps to dial in the temperature. Be careful using dimmers with halogen bulbs as you should not dim halogens below 60% or they will burn out quickly.
If you use a standard bulb you'll need a reflective dome to concentrate the heat to one area. Because of this I use PAR Halogen bulbs aka spot light halogens:
Please let us know if you have any more questions, we're happy to help!
