How much damage is this red 250w bulb going to do to my electric bill?

[chicks & ducks]

DH made a comment last night about how long the bulb has to be on the chicks, and something about the electric bill. Told him it had to be on for a few more weeks and that I'd ask you guys how bad it is. It gets really hot, and is on all the time so I'm thinking it's gonna hit our wallet pretty hard. Anyone know from experience?

 

[bock]

I have never really noticed any difference in ours.

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

I noticed a $5 difference in mine, but maybe is was more like $10 since the weather was nice enough not to run the AC/heater much during the day. I was looking because my DH was complaining too because it was nice during the day and I would forget to turn it off. They were out side and at 6 weeks I felt they needed to be able to go in an warm up if needed. I pay the electric bill anyway, boy he likes to complain, but enjoys my chickens.

 

[BMan]

Electricity rates are different, depending on your location, so you'd need to look at your electric bill to see how much a KWH costs. We pay about a dime per KWH so a 250W bulb running 24 hrs would be about 60 cents a day.

 

[ranchhand]

I pay the bills around here, and have noticed about $15-20 per month!

Of course, we pay dearly for every watt here.

I ended up getting a red, 100 watt outdoor floodlight at Ace hardware and it made a big difference. I use the 250 watt only when brooding a large group in the unheated shop now, the 100 watt for all indoor brooding.

 

[MotherOfMany]

Quote:

why didn't I think of this!!

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:

why didn't I think of this!!

Because like me, you probably didn't even know they made 'em? I just just happened across it one day!

 

[MotherOfMany]

The only time Hubs said anything about the electricity was when I walked in the door with the brooder lamp when I bought it from the store. So I have been extremely careful; surviving the day without A/C. Fortunately we are only hitting upper 80's in the afternoon and being extra strict with the lights and the kids just in case it does make a difference on the bill.

 

[Happy Chooks]

It increases ours by $30 a month.

My DH is like yours, doesn't like the heat lamp and the electricity it uses. He told me to hatch more chickens so we can have broodies. He figured out the kilowatts it uses, and it costs us $1 a day to run the 250 watt lamp.

I have a 100 watt red bulb, but it's not a heat lamp. It does keep the brooder at about 70 degrees though. So in another week or two, I'll switch to that.

 

[sonew123]

I had 5 of them going through winter-cost about 150$ a month--yup I have been hapred at and scolded but gues whos the first one to turn the lights on when it was below freezing? LOL...We kept the garage heated so it wouldnt freeze and had a heater in another coop-