winter electirc bills?

[enchilada]

just curious -----
how much more your electric bill goes up in winter?
tell us what you have and your experiences

 

[erica anne]

I live in Arizona so winters are fairly mild but our initial outdoor shelter was not well insulated. I used a kane heat mat and a CHE. Our electric bill is really about the same as it was in previous winters.

 

[tortadise]

Lol. A lot. More than my mortgage on my house. Most I've racked up one winter was 1600. The tortoise buildings are on there own separate meter too. Not connected to the house. That also didn't include filling the 500 gallon propane tank up for the propane heaters. Filled that up 4 times that winter at 500 a fill up. But usually when winters are more normal I fill that up 2-3 times and electric bill is normally around 8-900 bucks.

 

[erica anne]

Lol. A lot. More than my mortgage on my house. Most I've racked up one winter was 1600. The tortoise buildings are on there own separate meter too. Not connected to the house. That also didn't include filling the 500 gallon propane tank up for the propane heaters. Filled that up 4 times that winter at 500 a fill up. But usually when winters are more normal I fill that up 2-3 times and electric bill is normally around 8-900 bucks.

How big is the building and does it have high ceilings? Are you in an area with harsh winters? If I remember correctly you have quite a few torts...

 

[bouaboua]

Summer: 100 USD

Winter: 300 USD

I'm in northern California........

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Last winter I lived in SoCal. I ran 2 closed chambers and a heated tort house.
Each chamber had a 100watt CHE that ran on a thermostat for 80F and a 65 watt flood bulb for a basking spot.
The 4'x2'x2' tort house was fully insulated with 1.5"rigid foam insulation and heated tho 80F by a mini oil filled radiator, also on a thermostat.

In all honesty, my electric bill didn't increase. In fact, the first months the tort house was set up, my electric bill was lower. Must have turned off house lights more often, lol.

Obviously, in SoCal it didn't get too cold. And using closed chambers and good insulation proved to be very cost effective.

This winter I'm in Oregon. No chambers running, just a single heated tort house (the same one). I'm curious to see how it keeps up the temps and how it affects the bill...although I dont have anything to compare it to really.

Kelly, you sure love those torts...wow!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Summer about $180 a month. Winter is around $130. (HERE)

 

[tortadise]

How big is the building and does it have high ceilings? Are you in an area with harsh winters? If I remember correctly you have quite a few torts...

The biggest building has 10' ceilings for the plants. But in total there's 5 buildings. North of Dallas. So can we can get some pretty cold weather for a little while during the winter.

 

[wellington]

Wow Kelly, I didn't realize you got so cold there.
My bill runs about 160.00 normally. Winter with the added heater and humidifier it can get to about 220.00. However, I have two lizards, two frogs and an aquarium besides the torts garage.

 

[johnsonnboswell]

Every winter my power company sends me a notice that I use far more power than my neighbors. The house isn't very warm, but I've got 5 UVB lights, one aquarium heater, two filters and the occasional CHE. And I bake a lot and make soups.

They also inform me that we use less power than the neighbors in the summer. Torts are out as much as possible, cooking changes to avoid heating up the house, we seldom use the bedroom air conditioner while the neighbors cool their entire house.

In going to pretend it averages out.

 

[lisa127]

I don't use more in the winter at all. The reason is I have a dedicated reptile room that is pretty small. It's a room that is only about 9 feet wide by 10 feet long. If I keep the door to the room shut in the winter, it gets pretty darn warm in there with the heat in the house running and heat lamps on. I end up having to turn the rheostats down. In the middle of the summer it is warm in there because though I have the a/c running, I shut the vet in that particular room so again I have the heat lamps turned down. The only time I need to have them turned all the way up is in the spring and fall when it is cool out but not cold enough to get the heat to be running a lot.

 

[Tom]

It all evens out here too. In the summer I use no electricity in the outdoor night boxes, but we run the AC everyday since temps reach 100 most days. In winter we don't run the AC, but the boxes are all cookin'. Heather is right about the efficiency of closed chambers and insulated night boxes. My outdoor boxes use only .18 cents a day on the days with cold temps and below freezing nights. My indoor closed chambers use less than half the elcetricty of an open topped enclosure.

Also remember that CA has the highest electric rates of a

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I have nine fish tanks. All with two large canister filters, lights and heaters. Two fish pond pumps running 24/7. An enclosed, heated, closed chambered aquarium on a timer and a timer driven out door heater bulb in a dog house. I think what saves the most money is the fact that my water heater and stove use natural gas.

 

[Yvonne G]

I have five "special needs" habitats on my car port that are vacant during the summer, but inhabited in the winter and three insulated sheds for larger tortoises. I have solar on the roof. From May through October my meter runs backwards. From November through April I use from 168 kwh up to 1,628 kwh per month. At the end of the year, I usually end up paying about $1500 for the year. Without the solar that would probably be about $2500.

 

[Prairie Mom]

I have five "special needs" habitats on my car port that are vacant during the summer, but inhabited in the winter and three insulated sheds for larger tortoises. I have solar on the roof. From May through October my meter runs backwards. From November through April I use from 168 kwh up to 1,628 kwh per month. At the end of the year, I usually end up paying about $1500 for the year. Without the solar that would probably be about $2500.

That's amazing! My husband and I really want to get some solar panels. I went to Germany a few summers ago and couldn't believe how many people where using solar panels. We were well off the beaten path and every old barn had solar panels on it. Let me know if you ever post photos of your panels. I'd be curious how many you have etc. I'm eager to learn how to drive down the cost of winter heating and lighting.

 

[Yvonne G]

You don't really start breaking even until your panels are paid for, and they're pretty darned expensive.

 

[tortadise]

You don't really start breaking even until your panels are paid for, and they're pretty darned expensive.

Yeah. Even now with better technology comin out with the panels I was still looking at 58k to be completely supplemented off solar. Just for the tortoises. The house is another separate 20k system. So I'm not gonna do that until I'm in a permanent space when the zoo build happens.

 

[Prairie Mom]

You don't really start breaking even until your panels are paid for, and they're pretty darned expensive.

I'm sure. I've thought about that too and wondered how long it would take for them to pay for themselves. We have also been concerned about hail. We get some pretty wicked hail storms!