If you keep reptiles, especially diurnal ones, this is a must have. You'll also save a lot of money because you'll be replacing your UV bulbs when they really go down instead of having to replace them every few months. With this unit, for example, I found that my 20W Zilla UVB10 lamp was as good as new after a year and a half of daily use, while the Chinese MH lamp, which I had high hopes for, produced no UVB.