Attention: Coop heaters - flat wall hung type

[KrisRose]

The flat paneled heater is good for coops because it just helps take the edge off the cold and not meant to heat up the coop to high tempertures. I still have my red heat lamps on and a -2 morning it was about 20 in the coop. Chickflick who has the flat panel heater said her coop was at about 25 degrees.
So our chickens arn't wussies and have feathered out very well (well, chickfick has two Roo's who have pulled out alot of feathers and she is getting saddles for some of her hens).
I'm switching out to the flat panel heater because of the light the red heat lamps produce. The chickens can see very well will the red light and are up all night. They are also laying like crazy-one day I got 14 eggs from 14 hens. I want a break from egg laying for my Isa Browns (red sex links), I have 4 and they all had some egg binding problems. They started laying at 4 months and their eggs are huge compared to the size of their body's.

 

[KrisRose]

Rosalind-that seems really high- I have two red heat lamps, a heated waterer for chickens, one for the dog, and a heating element in Bubbas water tank and my increase is no where near 120 buckos!
I know last winter when it was just the dog waterer and the horse's water tank (100 gals.) it was about 20 to 25 bucks more a month.
One time it did go high but it was my fault, I let the water get too low in tank and it exposed the heating element to the air. That little thing worked it heart out trying to heat up my backyard and used alot of juice doing it!
I did'nt compare bills yet but a quick glance at last months bill and I'm thinking about 45 bucks.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Here is the math:

Wall heaters stay on constantly (No thermostat)

400 watts x 24 hours = 9600 watts per day or 9.6KW
Northeast Utilities is charging around $.18 per kw so:
9.6 x .18 = $1.72 per day or $54 per month

That is assuming your heater is 400 watts. You can see what a bigger one would do.

Last month was a COLD one, much more so than last year. Plus the price
of electricity has increased.

We use propane to heat out barn. It's cheaper than electricity but far
from perfect.

Our electric bill was $450 for december and our heated living space is only 900
square feet plus the barn. We use electric heat, hot water, and dryer.
I'm slowly switching everything to propane.

 

[Rosalind]

Yeah, mine does have a thermostat that turns it on at 32F, but I am in the MetroWest suburbs of Boston. We always get hammered with the nasty weather. Example: Monday, Boston is supposed to get 2-3" of snow. We are predicted to get a foot at least, all of 35 miles down the road. So it really did run 24/7, the weather is just that bad out here. I think I will let the birdies tough it out until the temps get really REALLY low, though.

Plus, my water heater is electric and the insulation on it is lousy. I need to fix that. Oh, the joys of living in an antique farmhouse...

 

[KrisRose]

Bummer, it thawed here and my red heat lights have been off for about a week. Last month it was really cold and they were on all the time. In fact, I'm think about running the hose across the lawn this afternoon to fill up the horse tank.
Keep telling yerself, spring is right around the corner!!