ARR! My electricity bill doubled!

Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Its just the government forerer increasing power prices and the companies that continue to over charge us and rip us off
 
As Wokka says, using those devices (ceramics, globes) is about the most wasteful, inefficient and expensive way to heat your reptiles (lizards other than geckos excepted - they need light). Heat mats or heat cords are way more efficient, and give the snakes something warm to lie on, so you get a direct transmission of warmth from source to the animal with very little loss to the air before the animal absorbs the heat it needs. They also indirectly increase the ambient air temperature in the enclosure as a side benefit, rather than heating the air from which the snake has to then absorb warmth. This is very wasteful.

Jamie

Jamie did you ever have any problems with impaction from belly heat (cord, mats) with your imbricata? A vet at murdoch uni said every case of impaction she had the snake had been using belly heat. Yet she never gets stimi's womas or BHP's with the same problem. I like to heat my imbricata from above and I use ceramics mostly. Any thoughts on this?
Also if feeding through winter is it okay to just have a tile that is 32°c degrees even if the rest of the enclosure is 15°C. I do this with my stimi's but they go off food anyway when it gets cold. Where as my carpets will eat even if it's cold (I havent let their enclosures get as cold if I'm still feeding them as I worry that they wont have enough heat to digest).
 
what kind of dragon is it? i dont heat any of mine overnight now, i have central beardies. the only overnight heat i use is for hatchies, and only for the first week max, even that is only a 20w heat mat. then it's 12 hrs on 12hrs off for heat and uv. also try lowering the wattage of heat bulbs used. i have dropped down to 40w spotlight globes , focussed onto dark rocks or slate tiles. gets a good 40+ basking spot,keeps a warm end, and the rest of the enclosure is just ambient room temp. my womas only have 25w heat cord under slate tile and that is 12on 12off for winter, the biggest bulb i have is just a 75w ceramic, used to heat a 4x4x2 enclosure, i have found anything higher is just overkill. temps here have been pretty cold, and all my juvie dragons are still growing fine, eating well. my juvie pythons are are eating well .

I use thermostats on all my heating for safety reasons. Its really cold right now and i have a very young dragon that needs night time heat. Thinking maybe some heat mats for the snakes are the way to go and leave the hungry heat lamp for the one dragon.
I have 2 more snakes coming up soon so might even heat mat/cord them too.
 
i dont heat my beardies over night and they are the same species as yours! they dont need it! at least the pogona minor in w.a dont!!
 
Tumbleweed- I have noticed your really positive comments are doing well with the whole making friends thing.....

I didn't join the forum to make "friends" and I definitely didn't join to do a breakdown of someone's power bill, especially when there are numerous energy calculators as well as all the information on your bill. A little bit of initiative goes a long way.
 
Your kidding yourself if you think a few lights and heaters will make a difference to the environment. It would be like trying to empty the ocean one bucket at a time. The problem is industry. High rise offices running thousands of lights, heating and cooling, lifts, escalators, etc. Street lighting, shop fronts, trains and trams, the amount of power to heat or cool your local shopping centre is massive! then there's manufacturing with massive motors, AC, conveyors, power tools, industrial ovens, etc etc.. People always bring it back to domestic responsibility, but really this doesnt even account for 25% of power usage. Same with water... Any difference the domestic sector makes is gobbled up by industry. To make a difference we need to target the big energy users.

.
I think the problem is that people dont link power usage with environmental damage. Generally the short term benefits of dollars to the "lucky" few who mine the coal is considerred rather than the long term damage which often lasts forever and effects the whole nation. A handfull of miner get big bucks whilst the rest of the community are left with the long term legacy.Education starts at home and hpefully that will flow on to industrial users.Its a shame that users only consider efficency when the dollar value of power increases.
 
I didn't join the forum to make "friends" and I definitely didn't join to do a breakdown of someone's power bill, especially when there are numerous energy calculators as well as all the information on your bill. A little bit of initiative goes a long way.

Tumbleweed you dont have to read the thread so if your not interested in making friends why read topics that you have no interest in, its the chit chat section for a reason so people can talk about whatever they want hence why alot of people have decided to chat, this is also a way for people to help others in a topic that does affect other keepers. In time you'll probably be one of those many people that arent givin any thought and probably get banned for inciting arguments and not getting along with other members
 
electricity is the rolls royce of energy, you should expect to pay dearly for the privileges it brings...
an easy thing to say i admit, when i am yet to see a bill crack $300 (getting close though).

i agree with wokka's sentiments
 
Last edited:
I think the problem is that people dont link power usage with environmental damage. Generally the short term benefits of dollars to the "lucky" few who mine the coal is considerred rather than the long term damage which often lasts forever and effects the whole nation. A handfull of miner get big bucks whilst the rest of the community are left with the long term legacy.Education starts at home and hpefully that will flow on to industrial users.Its a shame that users only consider efficency when the dollar value of power increases.
Industry is well aware of their use and the consequences They don't lack education it's just that they are driven by greed. You will sooner hold back the tide than stop industry. A lot of generators and turbines chew the same amount of fuel regardless of how much current is being drawn. I'm not sure if the amount of coal used is proportional to the amount of power being consumed at anyone time. Or if it simply pumps out 33kv all the time. In which case using less electricity won't stop the amount of coal being burnt. Unless they can reduce the number of turbines.

I know the gas turbines use the same amount of gas regardless.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
dam you guys are lucky! 300$ :( We are up too 900$ monthly =( managed to get it down from 1400$ Larger family though 4 People and a fish room.

I find insulation is a must of anything that has to be heated if your living down in Melbourne or Sydney etc. Wood and glass are poor insulators so you are heating the air constantly and its running out of the enclosure instantly almost. If you have a good insulated room the heat will hold better depending on the size, My room sits on 26C with 2 hours of heating from a R/C unit daily which costs 22C for the 2 hours.

I am going to try and add eps foam around my snake enclosure and see if this helps it should work a bit but the glass doors are a huge heat loss.

As for heat mats are they really much cheaper? I may have to invest in some. I under stand you heat half the enclosure with the mat which is like a heat rock? Correct? but are these units running 24.7 or do they stop once they reach the set C? the only one I have seen just plugged right into the power point which made me believe they run 24.7 where as the globes only come on when required.
 
I didn't join the forum to make "friends" and I definitely didn't join to do a breakdown of someone's power bill, especially when there are numerous energy calculators as well as all the information on your bill. A little bit of initiative goes a long way.

then dont bother wasting my or anyone elses time by posting pathec comments. This is a forum for people to help one another, not shoot down because you happen to know how everthing in the world works. Grow up and dont reply to this thread!
 
my spa and beer fridge draw way more power than our animals enclosures ,so instead of selling the pets we put solar panels up when the government was silly and giving away 66 cents per Kw ,with 2 kids 5 enclosures and the rest our bills were $0 for a few years but they are getting towards $100 a quarter now :(
 
what kind of dragon is it? i dont heat any of mine overnight now, i have central beardies. the only overnight heat i use is for hatchies, and only for the first week max, even that is only a 20w heat mat. then it's 12 hrs on 12hrs off for heat and uv. also try lowering the wattage of heat bulbs used. i have dropped down to 40w spotlight globes , focussed onto dark rocks or slate tiles. gets a good 40+ basking spot,keeps a warm end, and the rest of the enclosure is just ambient room temp. my womas only have 25w heat cord under slate tile and that is 12on 12off for winter, the biggest bulb i have is just a 75w ceramic, used to heat a 4x4x2 enclosure, i have found anything higher is just overkill. temps here have been pretty cold, and all my juvie dragons are still growing fine, eating well. my juvie pythons are are eating well .

I had 2 pagona minor minors. One died not long ago and i beleive it was from too lower temperatures. I now have one left, and since i have increased her temp 24-7, she is feeding much better and growing very fast. She's only about 5 months old, so i know she wont need that sort of heat 24-7 when she is older. I will turn her equipment off at nights when she is a little older :)

my spa and beer fridge draw way more power than our animals enclosures ,so instead of selling the pets we put solar panels up when the government was silly and giving away 66 cents per Kw ,with 2 kids 5 enclosures and the rest our bills were $0 for a few years but they are getting towards $100 a quarter now :(

yeah i hear the price they give to you per unit is getting smaller. I looked into getting solar panels, but by the time you spend the thousands on them, it takes a lifetime to make the money back. You would of got your panels at the best time and at least had a few years with the $0 bills :)
 
Last edited:
couldn't be bothered to check all the posts but my wife and I got that climate smart (QLD initiative) to come to our house and they put in a electricity reader. amazing device. My 150watt heat lamp uses SH*&. no where near double electricity, so there is obviously an issue somewhere else. I would ask the electricity company you are with to have someone come and check the meter-its like $10 and will give you further peace of mind that there are no leaks or whatever!
 
We keep the gas central heating on all the time , 20 c days and 18c nites for the whole house . the snake heating is off at nite , show me anywhere in Aus where it is 32c at nite . It takes all nite to drop to 18c anyway . The cages dont need as much heat in a warm room . we pay $550av but the includes the Plasma , dishwasher ,fridge , freezer , washing mach etc etc .
 
I use 4 x 25w heat cords, and 4 x 11w heat mats (I think 11w). The heat cords rarely run at full power, and the heat mats probably don't either. But in winter I expect a 5-10% increase in my bill, as they will run at full bore during the coldest parts of the day (night and early morning). The idea is to keep the ambient temps at 20-27 degrees and hot end temps at 32-36 degrees regardless of season. The lowest ambient temp I recorded was 18.5 degrees thus far, and that was last night.
 
Too many thing to read so just in case:

Buy higher watt globes and Set your thermos high 36-38, place the probe right near your basking/warm spot.
This way it will spend a lot of time off usually only on from the Arvo til early morning if your insulation is good.
 
Yeah we just got the first power bill since I've gotten set up... I owe mum and dad an extra $100 on top of my rent, and thats just for 2 months :(
 
then dont bother wasting my or anyone elses time by posting pathec comments. This is a forum for people to help one another, not shoot down because you happen to know how everthing in the world works. Grow up and dont reply to this thread!
"Pathec"?
Let's just look at this for a moment. You clearly state that you haven't added any new appliances apart from reptile heating. Wouldn't that then give you an answer to your overly redundant question?
Synergy - Energy calculator
took me the whole 15 seconds to find.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top