Its also really good not to have to worry whether or not they have water on days when I'm at work and we are below freezing all day. Glad you got the heater and I know your chickens are too.
Another tar heel here. I got an electric waterer for the early mornings and days like today. I had to run two extension cords down to my chicken run to plug it up. Its supposed to keep the water from freezing down to 0°. We do get that cold but only rarely. Think we did last winter maybe. Anyway...