do you heat? do you use pads? heat rocks? overhead bulbs?

people always tell me, pads are better, use them, but then I'm like why? using a pad on every aquarium for me would take 5 plugs. The way I'm heating now is on my 3 tier stand I use a heat lamp, which then heat rises through to the bottom of the middle tank then heat lamp the top. On my 2 70 gallons I just have a heat lamp on the lower to heat both, 3 plugs with heat and light instead of just heat