# Electricity bills!



## michg (Feb 25, 2010)

Hey everyone, i just wondered if anyone noticed a change in their electricity bill since they had a vivarium? If so, are there any bulbs/uv lights that work out cheaper? We have a uv strip light, a basking lamp and the heat lamp. I know you can get energy saving bulbs etc, not sure which ones to get though. Any advice please!!??


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

you shouldn't notice a huge difference in bills with just that... Although how come you have a heat bulb AND a basking bulb? you can just use one to do both... for a 4ft viv for a beardie using a 100watt bulb and a 30watt UVB you shouldn't be paying more that £6 a month more in electricity.


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## I am a scarecrow (Nov 18, 2009)

I think it's just something that comes with reptiles, I'm afraid..a high electricity bill.
Unless you bypass your meter, but that could be illegal..:whistling2:

: victory:


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## janeann10uk (May 27, 2009)

not so much electric bill but the gas bill has gone through the roof cos i leave the heating on full overnight (got a cold house)


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## sunnyskeg (Jul 3, 2008)

our electric bill is £160 a month:whistling2:


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

sunnyskeg said:


> our electric bill is £160 a month:whistling2:


 
how'd you get it so cheap?


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## sazzle (Jun 3, 2008)

janeann10uk said:


> not so much electric bill but the gas bill has gone through the roof cos i leave the heating on full overnight (got a cold house)


unhook the gas meter and turn it around (if its an old one):lol2:

i never paid electric before (was living with parents) but having a shed load of reptiles and a bloke who makes music and has more gadgets than the gadget shop we have high bills :lol2:


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## sunnyskeg (Jul 3, 2008)

Meko said:


> how'd you get it so cheap?


mmmmmmmmmmmm lets see,6 x 250 w ceramics, 3 x 180 w tubes, 6 x 120 w tubes, couple dozen matts, few bulbs here and there ,it all helps............easy really................ops forgot 2kw heater on in the rep room all over winter ,now that really helps:lol2:


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## [email protected] (Jan 21, 2010)

Ive got about 12 vivs in the flat, heat lamps, uv lamps, strip lamps, heat mats are always good and electric is like £3 a day in total including all of this so i wouldnt see it so much


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

still cheap for your pet list.. i get £80 monthly bills (on average) just for running a house.


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## sunnyskeg (Jul 3, 2008)

Meko said:


> still cheap for your pet list.. i get £80 monthly bills (on average) just for running a house.


thats what we pay for just gas


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

now that's expensive.. my gas is usually about £30 a month


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## michg (Feb 25, 2010)

Meko said:


> you shouldn't notice a huge difference in bills with just that... Although how come you have a heat bulb AND a basking bulb? you can just use one to do both... for a 4ft viv for a beardie using a 100watt bulb and a 30watt UVB you shouldn't be paying more that £6 a month more in electricity.


Meko, when you say that i just need a 100watt bulb, is that the basking one or the heat lamp? We have the heat lamp just in case the temp goes down at night, and the basking lamp for him to bask under during the day. They all go on at 7am and go off at 7pm.


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

is the heat lamp a ceramic then?

you don't really need any additional heat unless it's really cold. If you are using a ceramic at night it won't be on full as you don't need daytime heat at night... but even if you left the basking light and UV on 24/7 it'll cost about £12 a month so with a UVB and basking bulb during the day and a ceramic at night you shouldn't be looking at more than a temmer a month.


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

Ours is pretty cheap, low wattage heat mats and thermostats keep the prices down, the torts 250watt UVB does add a couple of extra quid a month but nothing really noticable.
I used to use ceramics, 100-250, but our 24x16 heat mats are only 40watts.


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## asm1006 (May 5, 2007)

We have had a huge gas/electric bill:gasp:
be appreciative for an estimate on my leccy bill monthly for my reps.

All on timers and go off at night.

2 bd vivs both have 100w bulbs and have UVB 10% one is 3ft and other 4ft.
7 heat mats.
One AHS type heater
all on thermostats


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## xvickyx (Jul 21, 2009)

I found this calculator, which might be useful

TWDragons | Bearded Dragons | Tool Kits | Electricity/Energy consumption calculator


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

asm1006 said:


> We have had a huge gas/electric bill:gasp:
> be appreciative for an estimate on my leccy bill monthly for my reps.
> 
> All on timers and go off at night.
> ...


 
too much information missing.. 7 heat mats and an AHS with no wattages.


basically, add up your wattages together and convert to kilowatts.

work out how many hours you're using them for 

multiply kw to hours to give a total of kw used

multiply kw * pence per unit

the below is from another thread where somebody had 1 beardie with a 30wayy UVB and a 100watt bulb.



Meko said:


> For a 30 watt UVB and a 100watt heat bulb
> 
> 
> 130watts - convert it to kilowatts = .130kw
> ...


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## snowyj99 (Feb 28, 2008)

I pay for my place with 46 vivs, £45 a month electric and £20 Gas. :2thumb:

They are definite prices.


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## sazzle (Jun 3, 2008)

how the bloomin eck you manage that, they take £120 off me a month for both and during winter i end up owing them £400 and thats after they've taken the £300 credit off lol x


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## _simon_ (Nov 27, 2007)

Uswitch

For electric alone I was paying £120 a MONTH with npower now I pay £70 a month with EDF.


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## sazzle (Jun 3, 2008)

southern-electric is the cheapest in my area, even with E.ON staff discount/online products i'm better off with SE, tied in with them for another 2 years anyway  x


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## paul k (Apr 15, 2007)

i personally saw quite a big difference in my leccy bills after setting up the vivs, so i built my own vivs, double skinned em and insulated them. put them all on ahs heaters. its worked a treat, the ahs seems to be on for a couple of hours a day at most and the insulated vivs seem to retain the heat very well. well worth the effort if you can find a viv builder to do the same for you in my opinion. :2thumb:


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## The_Elemental (Aug 24, 2009)

_simon_ said:


> Uswitch
> 
> For electric alone I was paying £120 a MONTH with npower now I pay £70 a month with EDF.


Same as us used npower and moved to EDF.

Had our electric bill this morning £110.18 for the quarter :2thumb:

Bill shows first 232 units charged at 10.48p/unit and all the rest at 7.45p/unit so very happy:2thumb:

Gas was just over £200 :bash:

All of my reps are in the spare bedroom which is very well insulated and is also heated with a fan heater.

Steve


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## jillygirl (Feb 1, 2010)

xvickyx said:


> I found this calculator, which might be useful
> 
> TWDragons | Bearded Dragons | Tool Kits | Electricity/Energy consumption calculator


Hey thanks xvickyx.. never seen that before,, just worked out my average usage.. good news.... not half as bad as i thought... just working out were i can put my next viv :lol2: (hubby = :yeahright


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## xvickyx (Jul 21, 2009)

Cool, I just run heat mats on stats & that's only about £5 a month  surprise me how cheap they were! I did have a marine tank which cost £37 a month arrggh.


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## Mik3F (Feb 6, 2010)

the problem with thsoe calcs is they never take into account the thermostats so i can never properly work out my consumption


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## violawench (Oct 16, 2009)

Because of the different temps/husbandry of some of my species living at a lower temperature, I've found that Tesco's energy saving light bulbs along with a low watt heat mat and thermostat, keeps the temps just right for my corns. Really I only run about 20watts of electricity this way. 

Now my room is warm, partly due to the presence of many vis, and its at the top of the house and the heat rising gets sort of trapped.

If you have a warm room, you could consider this option as it really cuts down our electric bill. I have 3 4ft vivs, a 2ft wooden viv and one 2 1/2ft glass, one 2ft glass, plus an 18inch wooden viv, my fish's filter and my turtle's filter and light and I think our bill worked out at around £30 for the last quarter so we were pleased


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## xx-SAVANNAH-xx (Jan 9, 2010)

I have high pressure sodium lamps in my monitor enclosure. this is real bad on electric but they love it.


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

Mik3F said:


> the problem with thsoe calcs is they never take into account the thermostats so i can never properly work out my consumption


 
you'll never be able to take thermostats into account as you can't dictate how often they'll reduce the flow of electricity. All you can do is work out your maximum usage as it won't cost any more than that.


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