Hi all, We are thinking of getting another Beardie, but beforehand, we were wondering if those of you that have multiple tanks, did your electric bill go up much per month? I am just curious if these UVB lights and heat lamps hike up the bill? LOL. I'm sure not much, but was just curious. Thanks!!
Depends on what lighting you are using. If your using MVB 160w Mega Ray and another light say a 60w. its gona be more im sure. Comapared to a 15w 10.0UVB Flourescent and a 60W Clear bulb. Depends on the setups.
Since we got our beardie at the end of Dec. our bill has gone up. But, because of the time of year, it's hard to distinguish how much is due to the tank lighting/etc. and how much is due to our house heat running more.
Hi Skittles, I'm pretty sure the cost will be negligible especially when you compare it to your cricket bill...lol I have 4 enclosures in my house right now using MVB's and I doubt my bill went up much more than about $5 per month. Hope this helps, Dave
great...i have about 12 different cages some with 2 and 3 bulbs...i dont wanna see my next power bill...lol
Thanks for the replies! I guess the bill won't go up too much. But dang those crickets!!! I tried ordering some online and my orders been on hold because its too cold for them to ship. So I have to buy them at Petco for .10 cents each. I had NO idea I had to feed the crickets, house the crickets, sprinkle the crickets, and pay for them to fly all over the place. Yeesh! Carrie
I have 4 tanks setup at the moment and I don't see a major difference. For a 160w Mega Ray and a 60W bulb running 12 hours a day should be about $0.26 cents a day depending on your local KWH cost.
Skittles - I feel your pain - my silkworm order was delayed a week because of the cold here - but I got them yesterday 1000 little teeny tiny baby silkworms...
I dont think it will raise it that much. I have a 75w bulb, a 15w uvb, another 60-65w bulb and 3 or 4 heat pads and it didnt raise the bill much. trust me my mom would have let me know. But the problem i did run into was crappy wiring of my house so i was blowing fuses. i had to adjust which plugs went where. big pain. thanks for reminding me, i need to order more phoenix worms. beardies eat too much
It's probably less due to the wiring and more due to the capacity of your service, unless you have aluminum wiring (atleast that's what most electricians would tell you). In reality the proper solution to the problem is often not necessarily a larger service but rather a larger distribution system. I have 100A service which is small by today's standards but never blow fuses simply because I ran some branch circuits so I wouldn't overload a single circuit.
i understand the capacity thing. just didnt come up with the word when i was making my post. but i say crappy wiring because my one socket can hold more power than my other. and its the way that some of the sockets are wired to the fuse board. the electrician didnt do a good job distributing the capasity equally i guess. atleast thats how i can explain it best, i am a CAD operator not an electrican and no i dont use heat pads for my beardie. i have 4 other animals that use them.
the electric bill for our reptile apartment is about $300 each month... and the only thing that runs are heating pads, heat lights, and UV lights... and all the diurnal setups are on timers...
You do have alot of reptiles....but you are spending $300 a month just on electric for reptiles only.....YIKES
yeah, that's exactly what I was saying... :wink: they're in a 2 bedroom apt: lizards in the "living room", snakes in the back bedroom, and then mixed in the center bedroom... arachnids are in the walk-in-closet in the snake room... lovemylizards and I live in a 1 bedroom apartment around the corner, but in the same complex with the herps...
