KayKay~~~
How cold is the area your friend living in? Is it colder than where i live... i live in Buffalo, New York and the temperature around here is basiclly below 30 F for almost 6 month of the year and still i can keep both my veiled chameleon's reptarium at around 75 F at night and 90 F in the afternoon. To maintain these temperature, i placed a 100 watt bulb on top of the cage and place the cage beside the window to receive some natural sunlight. i also bought a Mr. Moisture misting system to provide water to my chameleon......... To maintain the humidity of the reptarium, i placed a plastic Softray cover on the bottom of the reptarium to collect the water that drip on the bottom of the cage while misting. The heat from the lamp will evaporate the water at the bottom of the cage and thus increase the humidity.
Basically the pet store owner might just wanna sell their glass tank therefore they usually "BS" a lot........ When i wanna get my Veiled... the pet shop ppl told me the same thing and try to sell their glass tank package to me for $250. Luckily i went online and purchase a complete cage package for less then $100. Furthermore, If you have time you can actually make your own screen cage 2'*2'*4' for about $70 ( without painting the cage) .......
hereby i attach the link to LLL reptile for the complete cage package and the DIY screen cage from chameleon paradise......Hopefully this will help you!!
http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...cage-packages/
http://www.chameleonparadise.com/2x2x4DIYCage.htm