Thanks for the reply.
the pig blankets would be thermostatically controlled to ensure that they cant get to a temp to burn the animal. also the uv strips i use are the new(ish) high output ones from arcadia. these give off the same uv or more than MVB's and over a bigger area, so are the best available in the UK.
Obviously they will never replicate the sun but we dont get much of that in the UK anyway!! ha ha
I'm still very much undecided what to do, i may even look at using over head ceramic heat emitters as they usually last a long time and would take some of the worry away of bulbs blowing