Electric bills

[cathatesrudy]

So, we haven't been keeping herps in any real numbers until late last year/early this year and after a few months I am really stuck trying to figure out how those of you who keep larger numbers of herps afford to keep them heated?!? We keep MOST of the snakes in one room that is kept at a higher temp but does not have a door on it and Hubby likes to keep a fan on in there at all times, the rest of the house is on central air but I'm told not to turn it off when we aren't home so it doesn't have to work so hard to get to a decent temp by nighttime and sleeping, I feel like these things are running us into the poor house! Any tips from longtime keepers of large amounts of snakes and/or lizards? We have 17 snakes and 8 lizards by my current estimate and only the corn snakes and ATB are fully grown, I can't imagine how much I'm going to be paying when the carpets and the RTB get big... HELP!!

[Aaron_S]

What are you using to heat the animals with? If you're using heat lamps that fish tanks that would be part of the problem. Also you should invest in thermostats if you haven't done so already. It'll regulate the temperatures of the hot spots so the energy output isn't always high.

I keep 13 snakes in two rack systems. There isn't a noticeable difference in the bill where it seems you're coming from.

[cathatesrudy]

we're getting into racks with heat tape, but a lot of the animals are still on heat lamps and under tank heaters right now, and unfortunately there isn't a lot of money right now to invest in better enclosures than fishtanks for the bigger snakes.

[Freebody]

i keep my babies in storage containers stacked ontop of each other,and my adults in full size cages, they are all in a room upstairs with the door closed, my floor heater has a thermostat and i just keep the entire room at 80d and i dont notice much in the heating bill. the heater only turns one for a minute every 20-30 mins or so to maintain the temp.

[Reptile_Reptile]

i keep my babies in storage containers stacked ontop of each other,and my adults in full size cages, they are all in a room upstairs with the door closed, my floor heater has a thermostat and i just keep the entire room at 80d and i dont notice much in the heating bill. the heater only turns one for a minute every 20-30 mins or so to maintain the temp. how would i go about setting a thermostat up like that???

[Lankyrob]

We have seven ceramics running constant and two mercury vapour bulbs running twelve hours a day, works out for us around £5 a month during the "summer" to run, imagine it will be less over winter as the house is heated then as well so the ambient temp will be higher.

[percey39]

In winter my bill reaches around $750 and in summer is basically non existant. I use heat lights and ceramics in all my tanks.

[Freebody]

how would i go about setting a thermostat up like that???
i got a dirt cheep space heater with a built in thermostat. cost like $17 in the summer at canadian tire. i just turned the nob up until the room hit my temp and shut off them marked that location of the dial. i had a thermometer in the room so i can constantly make sure the heater is still acurate but all is working good so far :)

[Will0W783]

Best thing you can do is to get a door for that room. My snake room is climate controlled with a heater and a radiator placed so to create a front-to-back heat gradient in each cage. Additional heat panels are in the cages that need them. While our electricity bill is not cheap, per se, it did go down once I switched to this method from heat lamps. We have a door with a draft guard under it and both heaters are regulated with thermostats so the room stays where I want it. If I did not have the door on there, there would be no keeping things regulated without constantly running heaters on max and it would drive our bills through the roof.

[infernalis]

Due to my sheer numbers, I find it more economical to heat the entire reptile room rather than each cage.

[percey39]

I heat my entire room also Wayne but as i have copperheads who hate any thing over 28 degrees unless feeding. I only have my room set at 20 celcius which is the cool end basically of most of my tanks anyway.

[Aaron_S]

how would i go about setting a thermostat up like that???

With the right thermostat it automatically does it for you. The one I use, a herpstat, will get the heat tape to the desired temperature and then shut off and only use 10% power to keep it there. It uses about $3 worth of electricity per month.

[Freebody]

ya i have heard nothing but good things about herpstat.

[Aaron_S]

Worth the investment in your pets! If you breed or don't breed a few hundred bucks will save ALL of your animals. I have it set that if the temps get too high or too low then it'll sound an alarm.

[infernalis]

I have it set that if the temps get too high or too low then it'll sound an alarm.

Awesome!!

My greatest concern is when we have winter power failures.

We keep a propane heater that runs without electricity for that.

To be a little more specific, We have a few tropical animals that do have auxiliary heat.

None of my colubrids (except gravid females) have heaters.

When I have babies on the way I put in heaters, The expecting moms seem to produce bigger healthier babies with a nice hot basking area.

[mykee]

Wow guys, you are getting killed on electricity bills, or you're just cheap. The cost of keeping reptiles I suppose.
I'll break down my setup:
I have 117 ball pythons in my collection.
They are all set up in rubbermaids in racks systems.
You can find pics of my set-ups here:
Snake Rack (http://www.strictlyballs.ca/snakerack.htm)
Each rack of eight bins (I have 15 racks) use 4" heat tape.
8 watts per foot.
12.5 feet per rack.
That's 100 watts per rack.
1500 watts for EVERYTHING at FULL heating capacity.
Like Aaron, I use Hersptat Pros to control my heat.
It's a proportional thermostat, so it uses as much power as it needs (on/off) rather than running all day long.
What I have it doing is maintaining 95 degrees on my hot spots 24 hours a day.
That means the tape will use 10% of those eight watts per foot to get from 94.9 degrees to 95 degrees, and then turn off. I find that this is pretty much even (on and off), so the total % of heat tape use is roughly:
5% of 8 watts per foot X 188 feet.
OR
75.2 watts per hour.
That's 1805 watts per day, or 1.8 KwH/24 hr. period.
OR
55.8 kWh/month.
We're billed at 5.3 cents per kWh of usage where I live.
That works out to a WHOPPING $2.96 worth of electricity a month.
OR
$35.52 per year.

That's to heat 120 ball pythons.

Not a pocketbook breaker.