# Electricity bills!!



## Denis (May 28, 2008)

How much is everyones lecky bills? My mum i saying it will b high but im not too sure. IS everyone elses quite high?


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## LadySofia (Mar 16, 2008)

ours has had a 30% (estimate) increase since this time last year! :bash: geting rediculous!

whos moving abroad with me? :lol2:


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## retri (Mar 5, 2008)

Are you talking about the fact that keeping reps uses quite a bit of leckky?


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## linda.t (Sep 28, 2007)

i'm afraid your mum's right.:bash:


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## Siman (Apr 12, 2008)

To be honest, if you have a rep that requires basking lights and UV then it'll cost more than something which requires a heat mat. Or in the case of cresties and gargs no additional heating. :lol2:


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## ZeusCorn (Jul 16, 2008)

retri said:


> Are you talking about the fact that keeping reps uses quite a bit of leckky?


Thats what i thought he was on about


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## lukendaniel (Jan 10, 2007)

i think ours is pushing £250 for 3 months thats just reptiles


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

mine is £47 a month according to the leccy board and that's just 2 people living in a 3 bedroomed house, a tropical fish tank and 2 royals sharing a viv (even when we seperate them they find a way back together).


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## vetdebbie (Jan 4, 2008)

over £300 for three months. 4 vivs, 2 fish tanks + heat mat for the cricket breeding project.


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## gregmonsta (Dec 3, 2007)

Tenner a week .... 2 people, 1 ratsnake with 100watt heatlamp + two garter tanks with energy saving bulbs and heatmats. Everything is statted.


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## Brat (Oct 7, 2007)

I used to give my ex 20 quid a week for electric for nearly 30 reptiles. No idea what the bill was though tbh, weren't in my name.
My Electric bill should only be around 20 quid a month now, if that. Just me on my own, hardly ever at home and no reptiles to heat.


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## Andy (Jul 27, 2005)

£70 per quarter for electricity. Bit steep I am going to try and switch to a price fix on as they reckon prices are going up.


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

£70 a quarter is a bit steep?? think i need to change again then as my £47 a month quote has pulled my pants down.. Although they do a reading occasionally and then estimate so no idea if its right.


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## Brat (Oct 7, 2007)

My Mum and Dad obviously lied to me when I was younger because when I got my own place I expected bills to be 100 a month as my Parents years ago told me it cost them.. Quite impressed it's a hell of a lot less than that so Im not gonna complain about mine as for years Ive thought Electricity was expensive.


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## slither61 (Nov 18, 2006)

Hi all,

Our eletricty bill has gone from £50 per month to £150 thats for everything.

Thing is we have been using the same for the last two years.

The problem is if you pay by direct debit your eletricty supplier had to read your meter every three months, now they only have to read it every two years.

I have phoned readings in at regular times they just don't bother with them.

I feel sorry for all these people that have fixed price deals ending they are going to have a shock.

slither61:snake::snake::snake::snake:


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## slither61 (Nov 18, 2006)

Andy said:


> £70 per quarter for electricity. Bit steep I am going to try and switch to a price fix on as they reckon prices are going up.


HI all,

But at the end of a fixed price if it has gone up a lot you may have a shock.

Also a fixed price ties you in to that provider for a period of time you cannot get out of it.

slither61:snake::snake::snake::snake:


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## Andy (Jul 27, 2005)

slither61 said:


> HI all,
> 
> But at the end of a fixed price if it has gone up a lot you may have a shock.
> 
> ...


I switched tariff today with my present supplier so I actually save approx. £5 per month and the prices and capped at that until October 31st 2009. They reckon the price of energy will go up around 40% in the mean time so hopefully I will save a little bit more. Plus I am in rented accomodation anyway and just changed without telling landlord so its him who is stuck with them not me because I will just move out lol.



Meko said:


> £70 a quarter is a bit steep?? think i need to change again then as my £47 a month quote has pulled my pants down.. Although they do a reading occasionally and then estimate so no idea if its right.


I think my gas and electricity combined was £125 for the quarter so roughly £10 a week which seems about right to me?


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## snd geckos (Oct 13, 2007)

think our eletric bill is about £40-£50 each week for the full house what you get for having a token meter


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## fixitsan (Apr 15, 2008)

Denis said:


> How much is everyones lecky bills? My mum i saying it will b high but im not too sure. IS everyone elses quite high?


 
If you like, I can give you a rough daily cost if you tell me what electrical equipment you have, what it's power rating is in 'Watts', what sort of controllers you have on each and what they're set at (eg a dimmer stat set to about halfway), and how many hours a day each thing is on for.

Maplins electronics had a special deal recently on energy meters for £4.95, they're now about £9.95 but thats another way to monitor how much you actually use.

Chris


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

Andy said:


> I think my gas and electricity combined was £125 for the quarter so roughly £10 a week which seems about right to me?


 
thats fairly cheap. Scottish Power just told me my electricity is £47 a month with just 1 viv and my last gas bill was £15 from April but that's because the heating is off for the summer.
Although i did only get charged £700 for 3 years because they never sent me a bill.


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## Scales and Fangs (Mar 22, 2007)

£2990 for the year


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## jonnyboy (Apr 22, 2008)

i spoke to a woman today who had a bill of 200 quid a month on leccy


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## fergie (Oct 27, 2007)

Around a tenner a week with four vivs on the go, four bedroom house and a one year old child to keep in clean clothes. Think we're doing ok considering the washing machine and dryer appear to be on a constant cycle.


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## Dextersdad (Mar 28, 2008)

Oh bills will go up. The wattage will be an indicator to that.

For example, I run a 250w ceramic heat bulb in one of my vivs. In the same viv there is also a 100w spot basking lamp that comes on during the day. Then there's a 15w uv lamp and a 15w heat mat. That's 380w already in just one viv! Other inclosures I have with 15w heat mats will have a far smaller impact as the wattage is lower but it all adds up.

380w in one viv is like having 6 normal house lights on. (actually it's a little more).

Our bills are much higher than the average household because of our reps.


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## fixitsan (Apr 15, 2008)

Dextersdad said:


> Oh bills will go up. The wattage will be an indicator to that.
> 
> For example, I run a 250w ceramic heat bulb in one of my vivs. In the same viv there is also a 100w spot basking lamp that comes on during the day. Then there's a 15w uv lamp and a 15w heat mat. That's 380w already in just one viv! Other inclosures I have with 15w heat mats will have a far smaller impact as the wattage is lower but it all adds up.
> 
> ...



Although a lot of reptiles can make effective use of a basking lamp, am I right to assume that they can all draw heat from the surrounding air, so that even if there is no radiant heat or direct sunlight they can still adopt the temperature of the surroundings ?

The reason I'm asking is because the one form of heating which seems to be lacking in many home situations is direct warm air heating. A fan heater is a crude example of the sort of thing which can heat air in large volumes, and which could be controlled to cut it's power consumption down.

I haven't thought too much about the problems associated with ducting warm air to several tanks, but using your case as an example, things like the fluorescent tube fitting of 15W will possibly use as much as 25W because the 15W rating is for the tube, but there is a lot of heating going on in the lamp ballast too, which I estimate to be worth 5-10W on top of the lamp rating. (And is why I'm seriously considering making some very powerful LED lights instead)

If we rounded up what you have there to 500W to be on the safe side, then that is a really large amount of heating if it is used in the form of direct air heating. A small fan heater of 500W rating can heat a whole room due to it's efficient conversion. A radiant heater or a mat heater does a much poorer job of heating the air in tank because they work mostly through radiation and conduction.

If we were looking for the most efficient system, though not necessarily the cheapest, direct air heating has to win hands down.

I used to visit the reptile house at Edinburgh Zoo, and many enclosures had a huge ceramic radiant heater but I could never understand why because heatign the building as a whole with heated air would have cut their costs dramatically. It's a shame it had to close, and I hope it wasn't anything to do with the running costs either !


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## MrEd (Jul 12, 2008)

5 bed house and bills about 120 a month estimated. 5 young professionals and lots of high tech gadgets on all the time....:2thumb:: victory:


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## shep1979 (Feb 24, 2008)

my last quartley bill was £179 and since then i have put in a extra 7 vivs and and few lamps and heat mats for the mantids and just got my bill this week for the quarter and it was only £90 :lol2: so im not complaining


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

i pay 80 a month for gas and elecricity


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## SWsarah (Aug 6, 2005)

About £100 a month for me in the winter. In the summer as the tortoises can go out more its less


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## Sid.lola (Jan 10, 2008)

6 snakes, two tropical fisjh tanks. I'm on a pre-pay meter and put £40 a month on, which never gets used up. 

But then I don't use electric for much else. I rarely play computer games or have the TV on and only have lights on when I'm trying to read at night...


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## Chimp (Sep 23, 2006)

i only pay my mum £10 a week but im sure its alot more than that probobaly £25 and i am getting an ig so im sure thats going to go up:bash:


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## charlottej1983 (Oct 29, 2007)

£500 a quater! and the shop........ was close to 1k a quater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Chelle230 (Apr 9, 2008)

for the two of us, a 2 year old and our reps, about £20 a week on key meter


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## TAXI (Apr 5, 2008)

£140 Quid a month.......6 tANKS.......


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## wacky69 (Apr 8, 2008)

think it depends on your supplier really i pay £40 month for my electric but am waiting for my first bill since i been keeping reps. not looking forward to it lol


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## JUSTDRAGONS (Feb 5, 2007)

Im paying around £650-£750 a quarter:cussing::cussing::cussing:


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## dracco (May 17, 2008)

I have the key meter as well and I am about £8 aday just for electric find its getting dearer and dearer every month


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## Dextersdad (Mar 28, 2008)

fixitsan said:


> Although a lot of reptiles can make effective use of a basking lamp, am I right to assume that they can all draw heat from the surrounding air, so that even if there is no radiant heat or direct sunlight they can still adopt the temperature of the surroundings ?
> 
> The reason I'm asking is because the one form of heating which seems to be lacking in many home situations is direct warm air heating. A fan heater is a crude example of the sort of thing which can heat air in large volumes, and which could be controlled to cut it's power consumption down.
> 
> ...


I wouldn't use direct warm air for heat as each viv/tank has it's heat gradients that would be messed up with convection rather than radiation or condiction as the transport method from source to destination.

Using radiated heat (from Ceramics and lights) gives a hot spot and then the heat decreases throughout the length of the viv so the creature in question can thermoregulated.

What I do find id that a room with reps who enjoy a higher ambient temperature than others (lizards in this case) will achieve this collectively with their heat sources being on at the same time, thus the room heats up and no need for other heaters or radiators to be on.


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## daikenkai (May 24, 2007)

well im not looking forward to moving into my own house ill tell ya that! I started panicking about a week ago when i realised all the heating he reps, Ts will need plus i have electric heating! Not looking forward to winter thats for sure...
its so much easier just handing over £50 a week to the mother and letting her worry about bills. lol


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## SleepyD (Feb 13, 2008)

Dextersdad said:


> What I do find id that a room with reps who enjoy a higher ambient temperature than others (lizards in this case) will achieve this collectively with their heat sources being on at the same time, thus the room heats up and no need for other heaters or radiators to be on.


found this in my spare room where I keep all my vivs etc now - radiator is turned off (frostfree setting) because there's no need for it (especially as the house is also well insulated) 
Electricity useage hasn't drastically risen (apart from the thieving price hikes) with my quarterly averaging £160 ~
9+ vivs plus assorted flatpacks, hatchling boxes, racks etc, incubator, comp network, kids.........


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## doomed_angel (May 9, 2008)

Mine trippled in the 3 months after my boyfriend moved in with me and we got a snake and 3 gecko's!


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## Dextersdad (Mar 28, 2008)

doomed_angel said:


> Mine trippled in the 3 months after my boyfriend moved in with me and we got a snake and 3 gecko's!


My GOD that's a huge hike up for a snake and 3 gecko's!!

Mine hadn't doubled after 2 lizards (one with a lot of power requirements) and 3 snakes!


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## Mason (Jan 21, 2008)

Our electricity is £135 per month. this does not include our gas. 3 bed semi.


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## speedybob (Jul 25, 2008)

mine is about £4 a week on a key meter...but its going to go up soon, i've got a tortoise at the moment and getting a beardie...i just refuse to allow the tv on, lol...


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## fixitsan (Apr 15, 2008)

Dextersdad said:


> I wouldn't use direct warm air for heat as each viv/tank has it's heat gradients that would be messed up with convection rather than radiation or condiction as the transport method from source to destination.
> 
> Using radiated heat (from Ceramics and lights) gives a hot spot and then the heat decreases throughout the length of the viv so the creature in question can thermoregulated.
> 
> What I do find id that a room with reps who enjoy a higher ambient temperature than others (lizards in this case) will achieve this collectively with their heat sources being on at the same time, thus the room heats up and no need for other heaters or radiators to be on.


 
While that's true, direct air heating is still the cheapest and most efficient method and can't be ignored.

I was thinking about a system which produced the base heat required, particularly at night, for when animals don't need a basking spot and even in nature are denied a gradient. Half of the day they need the gradient, for the other half they miss out.


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## bug man (Aug 4, 2008)

*b*

depends on what ur housing and how you heating it its not that bad i have a lot and its not that mutch more:lol2:


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## milly (Dec 25, 2007)

god mine for the last 3 months was £555 for 2 adults a child quite a few royals , i need a meter


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## sarah1207 (Dec 17, 2007)

mines about £60 a month at the min on a key meter

for a 2 bed house with 1 adult and one kid and 2 beardies


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## llama_girl (Jul 6, 2008)

ours is on a key but seems to change loads each day...one day last week cost £10!!! but it's only seemed to be about £2 today.
usually about £20-£25 a week! with gas on top of that!! we really need normal electric thingy!


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## fixitsan (Apr 15, 2008)

milly said:


> god mine for the last 3 months was £555 for 2 adults a child quite a few royals , i need a meter



That's just unbelievable.
Have you got a bill to hand ? How much do you pay per unit ? It will probably be between 9p and 12p per unit ( 1 unit = 1 kWh)

When you say 'quite a few' royals, how many do you mean ? lol


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## tick (Dec 9, 2007)

Denis said:


> How much is everyones lecky bills? My mum i saying it will b high but im not too sure. IS everyone elses quite high?


£40 pounds a month extra takes it to £70:blush: wife keeps telling me but i do love my monnies:flrt:


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## Ruby Rue (Mar 21, 2008)

you want to watch out on power showers 9000 Watts (9Kw) and tumble dryers they take power, all the little bits will take it and add up,
my room is warm all day long bout 24/25 I had a friensds tank in it and didn't heat the water and it stayed at that for the two weeks, I got 2 4ft fish tanks 2 frog vivs and a corn. My olds aren't screaming yet, there is six adults in our house so hopefully I can dodge it abit. 
last time I heard it was 300 a quater on a 5 bed vic house. but is prob doubles since then.


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## Dextersdad (Mar 28, 2008)

fixitsan said:


> While that's true, direct air heating is still the cheapest and most efficient method and can't be ignored.
> 
> I was thinking about a system which produced the base heat required, particularly at night, for when animals don't need a basking spot and even in nature are denied a gradient. Half of the day they need the gradient, for the other half they miss out.



I find that an oil based heater is cheaper to achieve a base temperature if the ceramics were not doing the job, although where my lizards are the base room temp is achieved byt the ceramics at night and during the day the spot lamps kick in to up the temps.


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## milly (Dec 25, 2007)

fixitsan said:


> That's just unbelievable.
> Have you got a bill to hand ? How much do you pay per unit ? It will probably be between 9p and 12p per unit ( 1 unit = 1 kWh)
> 
> When you say 'quite a few' royals, how many do you mean ? lol


13 royals, but to be honest thats one of the cheep ones that was an estimate wheni get an actual reading its userlly about 150quid dearer. my house is only 8 yrs old apart from me thinking they charge more for a 4 bed i donno, but i have made countless phone calls and letters of complaint.


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## leopardgeckomad (Feb 2, 2008)

fergie said:


> Around a tenner a week with four vivs on the go, four bedroom house and a one year old child to keep in clean clothes. Think we're doing ok considering the washing machine and dryer appear to be on a constant cycle.


who are you with thats bloddy cheap..:lol2:


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## XoxOriptideOxoX (Jul 11, 2008)

ours will be massive: got a five peopel family lol  me, nick, liz, oli, mum AND a tort that needs heating stuff, im tryign to make an outside run for him so he can be outside rather then indoors all day with the uv and heat lamp on  which he dusnt rl use!:lol2:


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## Prettyjoby (Aug 11, 2008)

Ours is about 80-100 pounds a month.
I know because I pay it. Thats for a family of seven and my snakes. Plus I have an extra freezer in my room cuz my family are vegetarians and my mum doesn't like the rats in the fridge.


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## fixitsan (Apr 15, 2008)

Dextersdad said:


> I wouldn't use direct warm air for heat as each viv/tank has it's heat gradients that would be messed up with convection rather than radiation or condiction as the transport method from source to destination.
> 
> Using radiated heat (from Ceramics and lights) gives a hot spot and then the heat decreases throughout the length of the viv so the creature in question can thermoregulated.
> 
> What I do find id that a room with reps who enjoy a higher ambient temperature than others (lizards in this case) will achieve this collectively with their heat sources being on at the same time, thus the room heats up and no need for other heaters or radiators to be on.


That's all something which is important too, as I've mentioned in a similar thread already.

In the room which we keep our viv in we have the heating on normally, because it's a bedroom. but if we hadn't, and there weren't enough vivariums in the room to heat the room then there is still a void as far as heating is concerned, yoiu need to either heat the room more or heat the vivs more if you want the room to be warmer. I'm just looking at it from an efficiency point of view.

I've knocked up a 'base requirement' fan heater using an industrial PID controller which I ought to be able to set to any temperature. What I know from experience is that if the fan heater is used to provide the base heat then the additional heating devices which might be kept on at night time, things like heat mats and ceramic lamps, could be turned off completely and the higher efficiency of direct air heating can then be taken advantage of, and there is no need to heat the viv room either.

It just pains me to know that I could be pumping in large amounts of electricity to a heating element or heatpad which is doing a bad job of heating the air, especially at night when there is no reason to produce a basking area.


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