Brooder light double electricity bill?

[LarryPQ]

You can try an EcoGlow, they use 18% of the energu a heat lamp does.

 

[Bengalcats1]

My gosh don't give me a heart attack, I was about to run and pull the plug on my babies ! I'm still using a red light and they are 3 and 4 wks old, maybe I should use a reg bulb?

 

[Katydid2011]

Quote:
Yeah, by two weeks, I usually have the two 100W bulbs significantly dimmed. The only reason I use two is just for the chance that one goes out, they will still have the second one. Their brooder is 4x4x6 feet, usually 2-20 birds.

As for electricty... sure sounds cheaper in Kansas! The bill for the apartment at school is between 70-100 bucks and we don't even heat it. The bill back home for the house in Washington is about 1300 every 2 months... that's right... 750 a month... because everything is electric including heat/ac/cooking.

Aquariums really don't soak up that much, especially heaters, because if you have a 1000W heater, it is not on all day like a lamp is.

I turn on about 500W of grow lights 16 hours a day in the spring and our bill goes up 30 a month... Cost per KW hour under some amount is about a dime, cost per KW hour above that special number is more.

Thank you! I'll go ahead and switch to two 60 watt bulbs.

 

[carrlr]

I would say the non-stop back and forth to check on the chicks in a detached garage cost more than the cost of the 250W bulb I have to keep them warm. LOL!!!

Just can't get enough of watching those little fuzzy butts.

 

[epeloquin]

I tried going to 100 watt bulb and lowering it closer to the brooder but the chicks got cold so I went back to the 250. Realistically it is not for too long anyway. six weeks at the outside.

 

[Katydid2011]

Quote:
Cost is a peripheral issue. I was saying that my chicks are uncomfortable under the brooder light and stay as far away from it as they can get. Rather than continuing to raise the light (it's already so high!) it makes more sense to simply use a lesser wattage bulb. I've never had chicks inside the house before. It's a different experience from having them in the garage or shop. If they begin to huddle under the lesser wattage bulb, I'll simply put the brooder bulb back in and raise it again.

 

[stepstephens2]

The irony is that it was my husband who bought me the 250 watt in the first place... I was using 100 watt and he brought home the new bulbs saying that that was what we were supposed to be using. But he still calls it "my little project" so I take any blame for anything that goes wrong. He's really wonderful and everything, don't get me wrong... it's like when he took strawberries that I was growing in a partly shaded area and put them up on some pillars. I told him it was too much direct sun and it would fry them. So when they died he says "Hmmm, it looks like you killed your strawberries."

He will never admit that what probably hiked up the bill was all the security lights he put up everywhere that I'm pretty sure he wired incorrectly. They kept popping bulbs and I told him a month ago we were going to end up with the house burning down.
But I have to admit that the 100 watt bulb seemed fine for my birds before he suggested I change.

 

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, 250 bulbs are what is often recomended, largely because it was the thing to do before backyard chicken sized flocks. It makes perfect sense to use one or two 250W lights in an unheated spring barn with 50-100 chicks... but with 4-25 inside the house, it is total overkill.

 

[gertiie]

I took out the brooder light a week ago on my chicks, which are 3 weeks old.
I am getting them used to the whole , its time to go to bed bit. But the small bedroom/computer room
I keep them in, I keep the thermostat at 70 degrees. They huddle together when they sleep and seem to be doing fine.
I have not seen any chattering teeth on them yet

And eating ! OMG they are little piggies !!!

 

[Eggcessive]

A red color light seems better for the chicks to allow sleeping and for them not to peck one another. There just doesn't seem to be many alternative lightbulbs out there in the stores that are red colored for when the chicks are needing less heat. I have found some online and a25 wt party bulb, but you would think the farm stores would carry a 60 or 100 watt red bulb with so many of us chicken people out there.