Electricity usage

[loulou19]

Hi,

Our electricity bill has been coming in quite high lately, and us having eight reptiles in the house is probably the reason! It is getting too much for us unfortunately, at about £200 per month. My boyfriend's solution is to rehome his two sliders (who use a lot of electric what with water filters and heaters, plus lighting), but I don't want to give up any of my beardies, unless there really is no other option

I have four beardies and four wooden vivarium set ups which all have these:

Arcadia T8 12% = 38W
Spotlight = 100W
Microclimate B1ME Thermostat = 600W

I'm going to guess here that running four of those stats is what is using our electric, as they have a magic eye and therefore are actually running 24/7. I use these stats as the first set up I bought 5 years ago came with it and it's all I know. The heat and UV bulbs run for 12 hours every day.

Being in the UK I do like to have a back up night time heat. Our house rarely drops below 18C as I don't like to freeze either, but I do like to know that my dragons have a back up incase it does get too cold.

I have read this thread (http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=152638&start=0) and worked out that the stats are costing about £100 or something like that per month. I have no idea if I worked that out right, our electric costs 15p per kWh.

Also I am aware that it being winter here means we are using more electric in the house in general, but not THAT much. There is something eating away at it for sure.

So, does anyone have any advice on how I could run four cheaper set ups, whilst still being able to control the temps and provide night time heating? Or is this the only way?

 

[BadCon]

I'm not sure if I understand correctly, are you including the thermostat in your wattage calculations? Because if so, don't...it doesn't actively consume much power on its own. The wattage rating you see on the side of the thermostat is what its rated to handle, not how much its going to consume. The thermostat actually reduces your power usage, as its pulse proportional, cycling the heat sources on and off depending on the heat required. Even an old fashioned rheostat wouldn't increase your power usage (it wouldn't save you any power either).

Your setups are already on the low end of power usage from my perspective. Only savings to be had would be from using a smaller basking bulb...that said, your thermostat essentially accomplishes this when it cycles the bulb.

 

[loulou19]

Oh! Yes I think I understand now. Sorry this kind of stuff really confuses me so the stats don't use much more than the 100W from the bulb they are powering?
That's good, that would mean my beardies are costing about £20 per month. Though there must be something else using electric up. At least I know I don't need to rehome them.

Thankyou very much for your help!

 

[TASTIGER]

Oh! Yes I think I understand now. Sorry this kind of stuff really confuses me so the stats don't use much more than the 100W from the bulb they are powering?
That's good, that would mean my beardies are costing about £20 per month. Though there must be something else using electric up. At least I know I don't need to rehome them.

Thankyou very much for your help!

do you keep your house lights turned off if you arent in the room? you would be suprised how much power they eat up.

 

[loulou19]

I do try to keep lights off where we don't need them, same with anything really. My boyfriend has found someone to take his turtles, which have numerous bulbs, filters and heaters and may be the culprit for the excessive usage. So we will find out if it drops from now on if not I'm going to have do some more cutting back, but the lizards will stay thank goodness.