Ceramic heater instead of standard bulb?

[OptimusCham]

So I recently bought a digital stat as the old analog dimmer stat finally died and as this isn't a dimmer stat, it turns the heat light on and off when the temps pass the set boundaries. I'm worried this will badly affect my cham, and also shorten the life of the bulb. So, to combat these issues, would a ceramic heat lamp do the same job just without the visual light?

 

[OwenPowell]

Typically speaking, you want your bulb to stay on all day.
To make sure it isn't getting too hot for your chameleon you need to adjust where the basking area is in relation to the bulb until you find a distance that gives the proper temps for basking. You also need to have an area for the chameleon to go to thats away from the heat source (lower down in the cage) when the chameleon does start to get too warm.
On the subject of ceramic heating elements; from my understanding, chameleons associate light with a heat source, so it seems like a good idea to keep them as one in the same.