Incubators and my electricity bill!!

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
Pretty cool gadget. I found the video on the Today Show website and found out it was a Black and Decker device:

http://blackanddecker.com/energy/Po...PowerMonitor&gclid=CMCuidybmJ4CFQ8eDQodfUIwmA

 

[Laurelm]

Finally had what I consider a good thought - i am going to the pet store and get a low watt red reptile bulb like the one I use for my turtle that should do it!

and just use the 250's outside at night when it gets clod for the younger chicks.

 

[silkiechicken]

Really, you probably don't need 250W outside for chicks in san diego. It was between 35-40F when my chicks were week old till 6 weeks old and all I used was two 60W bulbs outside. That said, I even took away the heat lamps at 6 weeks old when it was still getting into the low 40's at night.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

That's asking for trouble on young chicks. Some will be fine, glad yours were, but in most cases, you'd have a brooder full of dead chicks the next morning, especially if you are using large outside brooders like we have, 3' wide 8' long 2' tall . It just plain takes a 250 to heat them in cooler weather

 

[dovecanyon]

That's asking for trouble on young chicks. Some will be fine, glad yours were, but in most cases, you'd have a brooder full of dead chicks the next morning, especially if you are using large outside brooders like we have, 3' wide 8' long 2' tall . It just plain takes a 250 to heat them in cooler weather

I don't know about that- my brooder is outdoors and I am using a 65 watt spotlight. I have a piece of cardboard over my brooder with a hole cut in it for the light, it is 48 degrees right now and my 4 week old girls are sleeping comfortably a 72 degrees inside the brooder.​

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

72 degrees at 4 weeks old is about right. You didnt mention what type of brooder though. If you have a small , little box, that is sealed up (covered in cardboard) then yes, that will insulate it and you will maintain the heat.
Mine on the other hand, are pretty massive compared to most. They also are wire bottomed, off the ground, and have a 3'x 3' wood bottomed box on 1 end of the 8 foot long brooder, the rest is all 1/4" hardware cloth wire, Even fully wrapped in plastic (what I do in the winter months) No low wattage bulb is going to do squat in that style of brooder. These style brooders are a hole lot different than the ol cardboard box deal most people use.
Either way, here are the general heat guidelines to adhere to for all chicks. Regardless of what it takes on your own personal brooder to achieve this, this should be maintained or you will risk chick loss.
Day 1-7 95 degrees
day 8-14 90
day 14-21 85
so on and so on, lowering by 5 degrees per week til you are around 65-70 after that no more heat should be needed, UNLESS it's this time of year and you are expecting EXTREME cold nights..

 

[muddstopper]

Quote:
In general, Incubators arenot verywell insulated. The common dickey or sportsman incubators are made out of 1/2inch plywood. The insulation value of which is about R.5. As a reference to compare R values to other products. A 1inch layer of snow has a R value of R1. A half inch layer of snow has about the same R value as a 1/2in thick piece of plywood. With this type of insulation values, one can not honestly say a incubator is well insulated. A solid wood cabinet made using 3/4 fir, pine or Redwood has about twice the insulation value of 1/2inch plywood incubator. Just one reason why the old Redwood incubators worked so well. Also glass incubator doors have a better insulation value than the plexiglass doors, glass being the better insulator than the plexiglass of the same thickness.

You can increase the insulation value of your cabinet stye incubators very easily. One thing you can do as has already been suggested. This would be to cover the incubator with some sort of blanket or old sleepingbag. You can also purchase some of the blueboard insulation like used in homes and cut it to fit each side of the incubator and then just glue or tape it to the outside of the cabinet. Be sure not to coverup the vent holes.

I would do a search for power consumption meters. You can buy very inexpensive meters that measure the power consuption of a appliance. These meters just plugin between the appliance and the wall outlet and give you a digital readout of the wattage. You can bet a very good one that measures and records electrical consumption for $150 http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp?pn=3108400&bhcd2=1258722158 , but a cheap $15 will probably be all you need.

 

[muddstopper]

Quote:
That is pretty good info. Different stye brooder boxes will need different levels of heating requirements. I wish I had a pic of my friends homemade brooder box. He built a wooden box complete with lid and mounted a thermostat inside the box. He used a old space heater/with fan to heat the box. Much like a forced air incubator setup. You just adjust the thermostat to the desired temps and forgot about it. I dont know what the power consumption was/is on his device, but it heated the brooder box very evenly and probably used about the same amount of power as the incubators. Next time I am visiting him, I will try to steal a pic.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I just use a space heater in a deep freezer. The heater has a thermostat so it aint on much. My incubator is a fridge too. I think my web server pulls more power over time.

 

[panner123]

Cost to run a light is; wattage x cost per kilawatt hr x average rated life. Example, 100 watt X .10 x 750 = $7.50. Each company has different rates so check your bill for rates per hour. Then if you go over a certain number of hours the rate can go out the roof.