Incubators and my electricity bill!!

[gymbeau]

What about a heating pad?

I did a search and found that most heating pads are rated 65 -100 watts on high.

The one I had at home had three settings. I tried it under a cardboard box. It took
a while but with in a few hours it was in the 90s (on high).

Before hatch date I am going to check readings on med and low.

Anyone with experience using items other than a bulb for heat?

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
I use a heating pad in the box when I have bottle baby kittens. The problem with most heating pads is they have an automatic off and won't stay on for more than 30-60 minutes. Kittens that are sleeping in a box beside the bed only need the heat for 7-10 days depending on how old they are when I get them and it's still a pain to wake up every hour and reset the heating pad. Chicks are too messy/dusty to sleep that close to the bed and need the heat longer.

 

[Akane]

You can keep raising a 250w bulb high enough but I find it a complete waste. Those suckers could heat a whole room in your house or melt a thermometer if you aren't careful with how close you put them. They get things hot. I only use them when I put chicks on the porch and it's down to 30s-40s at night or in the coop when it's -20F out. If you use lower wattage bulbs you can leave them close, much lower risk of setting things on fire, and much lower electricity costs. Instead of raising the heat lamp I change the bulb. 100w for 2 days, 60w for a couple weeks, 40w for a couple weeks, and then turn it off for a week before moving them outside. I've found it more efficient. You can get 40w bulbs in all sorts of colors. I haven't found any red 100w and only a few 60w but I don't find red bulbs to be important. I use the white on all my chicks which has been 100s this year with only one batch having pecking problems.

What temp you can get chicks down to at what age is variable. I've had some chicks at 80F by 3weeks old. Then I've had some chicks that were shivering and piling at 85F at 5 weeks old. It can depend on breed (smaller bantams especially seem to want more heat for longer), what you are feeding them (more protein means faster feathering), and the temps outside the brooder. Colder temps out of the brooder compared to under the lamp will cause drafts and cooler areas away from the lamp than if the temps are closer to the same. Best to watch the chicks. I've got 7week olds outside right now in small coop with no heat and we've gone below freezing at night. They are just fine because they were adjusted to those temps slowly, they were fed gamebird feed to feather quickly, and there are several adult bantams with them that all sleep together in a little dip they dug out of the shavings in the corner. There are lots of factors in every situation.

 

[muddstopper]

Since this thread has started, I have been doing a little meter checking on one of the Biblis Incubators. What i have found so far is that bringing the bator up to 99.5 from the 52* that the room was, the incubator ran on 250 max wattage. Once the incubator reached proper temps, the wattage dropped to 169W whenever the heating element was actually produceing heat. This power draw lasted for only a few seconds at which time the power draw dropped to only 6W. The meter we where using has a power consumption memory which allows for a reading of the total amount of power used over a given time. The total power used for a 4.5hr period was about 1kw per hour. When factored into a timeframe of 24hr for 21 days, the total power consumption would be around 504kw. At $0.20 per kwhr, this comes out to about $100 per hatching. The numbers I just posted do not reflect a real accurate power consumption for a full incubaton period because the time frame of the test was very short and included the period of most power draw of bringing the incubator up to the desired temp. Once the startup power use is factored over a 21day period, I would be suprised if the actual power consumption cost more than $10 per hatch. We have reset the meter with the incubator at full temp and will see how much power it actually uses for a 24hr period. This will give you a more accurate estimate of how much electricity it takes to incubate the eggs. Of course room temperature is also going to effect the final numbers. The garage this incubator is setting in was 52* at 10:30am. If you are incubating in a house where you keep the temps a little warmer than 52*. Your power consumption will be even less.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Muddstopper, there is something wrong with your math.

If you used 1 kWh in 4.5 hours, you would use 5.3 kWh in 24 hours.

Over 21 days this would equal 111 kWh.

At $0.20 per kWh that would be $22.20.


Where did you come up with $0.20? Is that actually what you pay? The U.S. average is $0.12 per kWh. North Carolina averages around $0.08.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

I just checked my bill. We have two meters. We get charged one rate for general purpose power and a second, lower rate for power for heating and hot water power. It came out to 9.9 cents per kWh for last month, total cost, including all charges and taxes.

 

[muddstopper]

Quote:
Read my post again,

The total power used for a 4.5hr period was about 1kw per hour.

, Not that we used 1kw for 4.5hrs. My numbers would suggest a amount of 4.5kw for 4.5 hrs. In a 24hr day that would be 24kw used times 21 days for a total of 504kwhr. My .20 cost of electricty is just a number I pulled out of the hr to round up the cost to even $100. I also said this,

The numbers I just posted do not reflect a real accurate power consumption

I probably should of also added that it does not reflect an actual cost of electricity. I am looking at my power bill right now and it doesnt even give me what our billing rate is. Something I need to check on for certain. Using your adverage cost for NC would suggest that 504kw would cost $40.32. This is still under what the OP said was the increase in her electric bill. You should also note that I said that once the incubator was brought up to proper temps, the power consumption dropped a lot, from 250w to 6w.

While I was typeing this reply, Chris called to tell me he had checked the power usage since resetting the meter. With his incubator warmed up, the current adverage kw consumption is 0.15kw per hr. This lowers the total incubation usage down considerably to 75.6kwhrs. Also, our price for electricity is 13cents per kwhr, for a total of $9.83. Which means I was pretty much right about the total cost to run the incubator for 21 days when I suggested less than $10

Of course this is going to vary with different incubator designs and such, and Chris and I have been working toward building a more energy efficient incubator than the current popular designs, but maybe this will give the original poster something to show her DH to prove her incubator isnt what ranup their power bill.

edited to add
I just went back and reread the original first post. 5 incubators and 5 heat lamps, yes that could raise your power bill by a couple of hundred dollars a month. The heatlamps being the big power users, the incubators costing about $50-$60 a month to run when you factor in the remaining 9 days if they are running continuous.​

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Muddstopper, sorry, but you are not doing the math right. You total of 504 kWh over the course of 21 days is a 1,000 watt continuous load.

Watts is the real power being used at any given moment, multiply this by the time in hours and you get watt-hours.

If you turned on a 1,000 watt load for 21 days continuous you would use 504 kWh total and would have the bill you calculated. Your meter was already counting in kWh. I assume what you meant to say was that in 4.5 hours you used approximately 1 kWh. 1 kW per hour, as you stated, does not make any sense unless you are talking about a continuous 1 kW load, which you weren't, since it is only a 250 watt heating element.

You can get your rate by dividing the total bill by the number of kWh used, as stated on your bill. My bill was such a jumble of different rates and taxes I found that was the only way I could do it, it wasn't stated specifically otherwise.

 

[muddstopper]

Quote:
What you are saying makes perfect sense and leads me to believe I missed a decimal point when reading the meter. Now I am going to have to double check to be sure, (with my glasses on). I will do that sometime today and post back

 

[Ladyhawke1]

Let's see….tuition in a southern California university gets raised 32%. The less water you use and it costs you more. The more water you use on a useless “green” lawn and you get a discount. Own a big bank and steal from the consumer the more money you are allowed to “take” free from the consumer and raise credit card rates out of site before any laws can be enacted. It has been said if they could poke holes in the sky, they would charge you for the sunshine. Or have they done that already. (???) Oh, sure let’s privatize everything it is good for business. Tell me again how it is good for people. Oh, my bad… I haven’t had my coffee yet.