Brooder light double electricity bill?

[stepstephens2]

My husband and I were just looking over our electricity bill and he is trying to blame it doubling last month on our using a 250watt red brooder light. Has anyone noticed their bill jumping dramatically from using a brooder bulb? I was gardening all of last month, so I thought that because I was mostly outside and not running anything electric it would offset the use of the bulb. Are they really that much of an energy hog?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Let's see, I would pay

250 x 4 = 1000 watts = 8 cents. (8 cents per kilowatt hour)

Every 4 hours = 8 cents.

You can look on your power bill to see how much your electricity costs.

1 kw = 1000 watts.

 

[silkiechicken]

Well, running a 250W bulb 24/7 for 30 days will use up 180KW hours. Figuring about 11 cents an hour here providing you do not pass some magic usage number, that is about 20 bucks to run per month.

If your birds are being brooded inside... a single 100W bulb will be fine for the first week. After that you can use a 60W or less.

Shoot, my day old chicks get two 100W bulbs in a brooder when it is 30F and snowing outside.

 

[stepstephens2]

Thank you guys SOOOO much! I just read the replies to him and he finally shut up about it!

He was trying to blame about a $120 increase on one bulb and would not listen to me. When I read the math on here off to him all he had to say was "Well, there you go..." I don't even know what he means by that?!

Oh well. You guys just won my argument for me!

 

[Katydid2011]

Our bill typically increases about $30 per month when we're running a brooder bulb. Even that seems like a lot!

 

[Katydid2011]

Quote:
We have chicks inside the house for the first time and I was just wondering today if I should go ahead and use a lower wattage bulb, because at two-weeks old the chicks stay as far away from the brooder light as possible. It's 80 degrees directly under the light and it seems to be too much. I can raise it up some more and lower the temp but it seems like over-kill when the temperature inside the house is already around 67 degrees. If it's okay to switch to a regular bulb, I'd like to do so. What wattage should I use and should the light be white or yellow or does it make a difference?

Maybe stepstephens2 and I can both reduce our electric bills and have happier hubbies, even if we aren't guilty of actually doubling the electric bill.

 

[KansasBoy]

I'm running an incubator, two brooders (plus a 1500 watt space heater out there), coop light, and three big aquariums... My pets don't account for $40 of my monthly bill last I calculated it up (1000's of watts just on the aquariums)!

By the way

, can't believe I forgot that!

 

[Katydid2011]

Quote:
I'm thinking the cost of electricity varies widely from location to location. It may be time to move to Kansas! Seriously, lucky you!!

 

[KansasBoy]

I dunno about that, our cost here has tripled in the last four years! But yeah they say we have a really low cost of living here...

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Yeah, by two weeks, I usually have the two 100W bulbs significantly dimmed. The only reason I use two is just for the chance that one goes out, they will still have the second one. Their brooder is 4x4x6 feet, usually 2-20 birds.

As for electricty... sure sounds cheaper in Kansas! The bill for the apartment at school is between 70-100 bucks and we don't even heat it. The bill back home for the house in Washington is about 1300 every 2 months... that's right... 750 a month... because everything is electric including heat/ac/cooking.

Aquariums really don't soak up that much, especially heaters, because if you have a 1000W heater, it is not on all day like a lamp is.

I turn on about 500W of grow lights 16 hours a day in the spring and our bill goes up 30 a month... Cost per KW hour under some amount is about a dime, cost per KW hour above that special number is more.