Help with my thermostat?

[Lefitte]

I'm new to keeping snakes, but after a lot of research, I took the plunge and brought home my little aberrant California kingsnake a little over two weeks ago. I seem to be doing things right as far as I can tell but I'm having some issues with the thermostat. Here are some details:

Glass 20x10x7.5" tank with locking/sliding screen lid
Newspaper substrate, layers plus shredding
Small ZooMed heating pad on one side of the tank attached to Zilla on/off thermostat
Digital thermometer [bought a week ago, analog before that] with probe touching the hot side
Two hides, one cool one hot, mopani branch, and water dish
Approx. 2 month old Cal king, approx 16" long named Eir

So, being new to this, I knew I needed a thermostat but ran into a wall when trying to figure out how to get the probe in the cage. Since the directions say not to attach the probe to the heating pad directly, I have it taped underneath the tank, beside the heating pad. We've had the a/c running pretty much nonstop with this recent heat wave but our house rarely goes under 80. Our air vents are on the floor and there is one a few feet away from her tank so I've blocked off the air flow from getting under the tank on that side.

The digital thermometer has been reading 84-95, which doesn't make me happy, considering the swings in temperatures, but I noticed once again that the temperature has gone over 100. This time it was 101, last time it was 105 when I caught it. I'm considering looking into proportional thermostats but if the problem has to do with the a/c air circulating then it may not help as much.

Any idea for how I can fix this issue? The last thing I want is for her to get accidentally burned by the heating pad not shutting off due to a thermostat. I mean, that's why I have one in the first place. Before you ask, I don't have any better place to put her tank. That's the only spot safe enough with enough room, outlets, natural lighting, ect for her to stay. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

[Obsidian_Dragon]

I have my probe inside the enclosure, above where the UTH sits--so you know, against the actual surface the snake would touch. There's a notch in the corners of the screen top where I can thread the cord through easily.

The little suction thingey I have on mine sucks, so I might hot glue it in place next cleaning. In the meantime I have a rock trying to hold it down, although my garter snake still moves it every so often. She loves redecorating that corner.

Like...so.

https://38.media.tumblr.com/8e76f0b762e619f03563ea5ed1152463/tumblr_nba3ihL40M1qdg59lo1_1280.jpg

[EL Ziggy]

Welcome and best wishes Lefitte. I keep my t-stat probe on the inside of the tank inside the warm hide which sits above the UTH. I set my t-stat to 94-96 to get my temps between 86-90 inside the hide. The snakes will sometimes move them so hot gluing them in place can be a good idea.

[pdomensis]

I've done similar to what Obsidian has. Probe inside, above the UTH and in/below the substrate. I put a rock not over the probe, but in the corner of the tank just to pin the wire where it bends. The probe end can move slightly but not much.

[sharthun]

Hey and welcome!

[Lefitte]

Hello! Thank you for all the suggestions and welcomes. I've been lurking for a good week now.

The problem with my tank seems to be that there isn't a notch and the screen goes nearly flush with the glass despite the plastic frame so there isn't much room for me to make a notch. I was talking that over with a snake friend of mine, I didn't know some even had notches, that would be perfect. I took pictures of the screen lid for him that I can link here later for any other ideas.

Currently, I've resituated the thermostat probe and taped it to the heat mat. We haven't had the a/c on so I haven't thoroughly had a chance to test it yet but its been staying a steady 84 now (I haven't turned it up yet in case of the a/c dramatically changing things).
My house continues to be a consistant 80 or so. I'd say 77-85 day or night for all but the coldest winter days is normal for us.

The thermometer probe is under the substrate (newspaper layers and shreds) on top of the mat. The thermostat is set at about 30C so upper 80s. I'm off tomorrow so I can figdet with things a little more but this might be working better. I can also see if there any possible way to cut a notch in the plastic (bonus; our power drill batteries died..)