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Lights and energy bill, and also breeding crickets?

G

GooG

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Will having lights on all day for a cham make your energy bill higher? Dont want to spend money on all of this then be suprised with a big light bill.

Also does anyone breed there own crickets? if so how?
 
I only have time for a quick response...

You can look at your bulb and electric bill to get an idea of what it will cost. Plenty of formuals online.

I used to breed a lot of crickets. In a nutshell, I found it was not worth it for me to try to produce anything other than pinheads for feeding to frogs and small geckos. Trying to raise crickets up to larger sizes simply was not worth the time, at least for me. Total opposite for rodents.

I can explain this more later.
 
Of course having any electrical device on will increase your electric bill! By how much depends on how many lights or heaters you have, and how long per day you run them. As Chris said, there are energy calculators available online to help calculate the cost by wattage. The cost per kilowatt-hour would be what you'd need from your electric bill to figure out how much per month any additional lights or heaters would cost you.

It's part of the hobby that perhaps some people overlook at first. But if you are only talking about one or two lights, for one chameleon cage, more than likely the increase per month wouldn't be a whole lot.
 
One thing I'd like to add: Is the light in question incandescent (a 'normal' light bulb) or flourescent? And is it being used for light or heating (or both)? Normal incandescent bulbs waste most of their energy in the form of heat, so if you aren't using the bulb as a heat source, you can use a flourescent instead to get the same light for about 1/4th cost. There's the usual long tubes, but also now there are flourescent coil lamps that fit into many normal light sockets.

AFAIK, there are no flourescent coil lamps specifically made for reptile's UVB needs, but if all you're after is general lighting or light for cage plants, they'll be fine. I'd also note to go small; these lights are very, very bright; a 23 watt flourescent coil lamp can be quite bright at close range and throw off a surprising amount of light.

Henry
 

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No problem. I would lean towards the ZooMed one. The ESU is suspiciously cheap. $10 to $15. And they give no meantion to using quartz glass and the price would suggest they don't. The zoomed is $30 to $50 and does claim to use Quartz.
 
Well, I'll probably be actually using them for my plants rather than my animals, since for $30-$50 I can get one of the heat+light+UVB combo bulbs, while the plants just need light (and since they won't break bulbs, I can use the cheap ones). Maybe the UV will help brighten their colors, and if it helps with flowering and growth, that'd be a bonus.

Henry
 
If it's just for plants, you could go with a plant light. They are usually around $5.00 at Walmart type stores. Or go with the cheapo UVB like you said. You should post a pic of your enclosure and cham. What kind is she?
 
If it's just for plants, you could go with a plant light. They are usually around $5.00 at Walmart type stores. Or go with the cheapo UVB like you said.
Click to expand...

Actually, the lights specifically marketed as 'plant lights' have shown themselves to be no better than the usual flourescents for the genera I grow with them (Nepenthes, Heliamphora, and Sarracenia seedlings (all carnivores)), hence why I'm so keen to try something new and different.

Henry
 
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