Which is more cost-effective- heat lamp, tape or heated waterer base?

[polar chicks]

I have the heated blue 1 gallon dog water bowl and it is thermostatically regulated. If I'm in the barn at the right time I can here it clicking on and off when the heat is not needed. It does keep the water liquid and i fill it up every morning.

 

[jubylives]

Quote:
Howdy fellow Iowan. I have familt in northern Iowa (around Mason City). I agree with getting the heated bases but I can understand the expense issue (four kids and a wife

). I'm having water freezing issues already for my ducks. The chicken waterers are fine as I have the dreaded and evil red bulb in there keeping them thawed and destroying the planet. I haven't noticed much increase in my light bill as a result of running the horrible red bulb. Last year when running two bulbs I did notice it but I wasn't shocked by all means. Maybe I was dulled from the ridiculous increase in my property taxes

I'm saving to buy some of the plastic heated waterers but until then I will be using the awful red bulb to keep the waterers from freezing. I'm not too sure if the heinous red bulbs would really have an effect on the larger and metal waterers (I have the small plastic ones) without heating the air around them. Which wouldn't be the best idea. Just some thoughts.


Jeremy

 

[moenmitz]

Howdy Jeremy! Nice to meet another fellow Iowan! I grew up in the New Hampton area, but did go to high school in Mason City, and we are now in Humboldt, which is technically more North/Central I guess? Where are you at?

Our electric bill tends to run between $150-$200 a month as it is, though for the life of me we cant figure out why. In the last four years we have tried to get to the bottom of it by: Replacing every decent bulb with those energy efficient crapolas, bought energy efficient appliances, replaced the ground rod and the well pump, have a GAS water heater and clothes dryer & threaten the children with physical torture if they leave the lights on-yet STILL, the obscene bill. I have had the power company out here to investigate and they swear we have typical usage for a family of four on an acreage. Baloney. In town our bill was not ONCE over $40, and we were in a five bedroom house and I filled a huge jacuzzi with our electric hot water heater several times a week! We carelessy left our energy IN-efficient lights blazing all the time-I just dont get it. Our house now is half the size and we really are conscientious of our usage. Me thinks something funny is up, but durned if I can get to the bottom of it!

Sorry for the off-topic rant friends-tis why I dont look at the bill any more, makes me too mad!!! Anyway, surely dont want to amke matters worse with the evil-red bulb thingys...lol!

 

[patandchickens]

Is your coop, by any chance, configured so that adjacent pens might be able to share waterers thru a custom-fit hole in the shared wall? You would need to secure the waterer so it couldn't be knocked thru and would need a panel to lean up there when you removed the waterer to refill, but it *might* allow you to only have to buy 2 instead of 4 heated waterers.

Just a thought, possibly not a practical one,

Pat

 

[vicki2x2]

I read the heat lamps can raise your electric bill almost $30 a month per bulb!! OK, that is crazy, so I was going to order the heated poultry waterers. The cheapest I found was $35. Then I did some searching, checked heated bases, heated water dog bowls, etc and found 1 1/2 gallon huge heated dog bowls for only $16 dollars. They are actually too big for my bantam coop so they got the smaller cat water bowl and the cats got a big one. Now everyone has plenty of fresh water for minimal price!!

We finally got them all installed yesterday. Until then, I was providing fresh water twice a day for the last week, as it was frozen solid every morning and most evenings already. Definitely worth the money!!

 

[moenmitz]

Quote:
Possibly, we were thinking on how to do that very thing. Two pens share a hardware cloth wall, two share a chain link wall...I can't quit figure out how to cut it to maintain protection from predators but allowing the waterer to sit in between the pens...but surely, where there is will, there is a way!


Dog bowls for us would be not so good I think. We have so many chickens and other birds, they wouldnt hold enough-they empty a 3 gallon waterer in each pen every day.

 

[jubylives]

Quote:
Boone is where I live. I'm not FROM Boone I just live here.

My electric/gas bill is $400+ per month. I have a very large house and the upstairs is a two bedroom apartment my Dad lives in. So some of that is him and is why he pays rent. My bill originally was around $330 per month but it went up and they said it was due to the "possible" rise in natural gas. There's no way to fight it so I pay it. We use those florencent bulbs but those do not last 7 years. I have standard bulbs that last longer then these pieces of garbage. So I question those things saving me anything and replacing them is costing me a fortune so I've stopped buying them and will be going back to incadescent.

jeremy