Electrical bills....

[Nicky]

Hey all,
well due to the high cost of heating my mom dosen't want me to get anymore herps that require heating.( except for the garters i'm getting soon) until i can start pitching in for electrical which won;t be till next year. So I was just wondering if there are any snakes or lizards that can live at room temp( room around 70- 79 on hot days and slightly warmer during winter) or that only require very minimual heating ( do heat pads use as much electricity as bulbs?) or if anyone knows and products that i could use as an alternative to give heat without using to my electricity( i;m not sure as i've never use'd heat tape befor but does i plug in somewhere or just emit heat for ahwile and then need to be replaced) Thx alot really want to increase my collection and begging breeding some of my herps so just curious if anyone knew some alternatives or herps that can function without high temps.
thx again
Kayla

[HeRpZ03]

some small heat pads only use 5 watts

[HeRpZ03]

heat pads r more energy efficient than bulbs

[Bartman]

You can also hide heat pads and tell her they just dont need bulbs

But i said nothing!

[Nicky]

lol thx heat pads should be easy enough to hide lol except when she asks what all those coards are from:S:S lol.Does anyone known about heat tape though, how does it work like does it plug in or just emit heat for 24 hours and then needs to be replaced?
thx again
Kayla

[Matt_K]

Heat tape needs to be plugged in.. There is a thread in the 'HOW TO' forum with a detailed post on how to wire it etc.. Out of curiosity, what are you using the lights for? If your animals don't need the light, i would ditch em and go to heat pads hooked up to a dimmer or rheostat.. Not sure how many animals you have, but i know how many i have, and haven't seen a change in the electrical bill..

[Nicky]

I actually don;t have to many( 1 cornsnake, 1 ball python , 1 hoggy and then 2 frogs) but my mom's always complaining about them( she said the electrical bill is increasing hmmm probably just an attempt to make me give up the animals.) I use lights because i always just assumed it was a better source of heat for them( they can;t really bask with the uth and most of the books i have say heat lights are better for them and uv light helps bring out the colors.( guess i've been misinformed over the years) Sry forgot about the how to forms... Matt, So your saying corns and balls don't need light bulbs?:S sorry really confused right now not trying to sound really stupid.
Thx alot
Kayla

[DragnDrop]

UTHs or heat tape is the way to go if none of your animals are arboreal or don't bask. For plain lighting not heat, you switch to fluorescent lights. I've got a zoo here, half the basement is a herp room, there's cages in the every other room except the kitchen and 2 bedrooms. All told I'm heating over 50 breeders and all their offspring. My electric bill arrived today - 2 months worth of electricity for home and herps $122.55 (in winter it averages $140)
If I had to heat the same animals with incandescent lights, the bill would be sky high, I'd never be able to afford it.

[Nicky]

Wow thx alot Dragondrop i'm for sure gonna switch over to uths and flouresent bulbs right away.
thx for everyone who replied
Kayla

[meow_mix450]

if you still wanna use UV get a lower watt?

Meow

[DragnDrop]

I just did a quick check of the difference in electrical consumption: 8 melamine cages each with 1 UTH rated at 8 Watts = 64 Watts. To heat them with lights would require at least 25Watts per bulb, or 200 Watts total. Just for those cages alone, I'm using less than 1/3 the electricity with the UTHs. If I were to use lights on the screen top cages, they'd probably need 60 Watt bulbs since the heat tends to rise, so it takes more energy to 'force' the heat down to where the geckos are. That would mean 12 60 Watt bulbs, 720 Watts total instead of the 96 Watts it takes for the 12 UTHs.
That's just part of the collection. Don't forget, a lot of animals can easily take a night drop to room temperature, so you don't have to run any lights or UTHs at night. If you live in town there's enough light coming in through the windows from street lights for them to see what's going on (in the wild they don't even have the luxury of lights, it's moon and starlight, and quite often not even that if it's overcast or a new moon).
Oh... don't forget to use timers. The initial outlay might be a few more dollars than you'd like, but it will all pay for itself in a matter of a few months.

[mykee]

I figured this out a while ago. I have over 96 feet of heat tape in use 24 hours a day, all the time, and this only accounts for about $19 a month. That's about a million times more electricity than you'll need to run what you have. You're probably using about $2-$3 a month of electricity to keep your stuff warm. Your mom is just trying to pull a fast one on ya'.

[Nicky]

thx guys i'm going to pick up uth's for all my tanks today and a few flourecent bulbs to simulate day time.
Kayla

[Samba]

You should get the heat situation figured out before you think about breeding...

[Nicky]

ya i plan too
thx again