• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Are UTH's more efficient than lights in terms of electricity use?

queztacoatl

queztacoatl

New member
Hi,

This is my first post! I'm going off to college soon and taking my snake with me. So far I've only used an over head light for heat. But living in my own place, I have to pay the electric bill of course. So I know UTH's are better for the snake overall, but is it better on the electric bill? I see some for 7 watts that go up to 90 degrees. But it takes my 65 watt bulb to get up to 90 degrees. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Jesse
 
Being that a thermostat is used with a UTH to regulate it it 24/7 (increasing or decreasing the wattage depending on room temperature) and flexwatt runs 8-20 watts per foot depending on size (not sure about commercial UTH), I would think UTH would be more electrically economical. Then also you need to consider the cost of replacing the bulb every 6-12 months depending on when it burns out.
 
Well yes, my UTH is rated for 16 watts I believe, and it's on a rheostat so it's probably only running around 8 or 9 watts, compared to a bulb which would likely be 30+ watts. If you left your light on 24 hrs a day, then the UTH would be more energy efficient, but if you turned it off at night, I'd say the total energy usage would be close to being the same.
 
Another thing to consider is how much more efficient a plastic tub in a shelving unit would be than a glass aquarium with screen top. Big difference.
 
To answer this you'll have to compare specific UTH to specific lamp. I'd say that usually for the same amount of heat though it will be cheaper to run the UTH. Also to find the true heating cost you'd want to factor in replacing the bulb, like TME said. I don't think it's even close here.
The Zoo med repti-therm product line goes from 4 watts at the smallest size to 24 watts at the largest. And you would never want to run them 'wide open' for a corn snake.
 
BobbyHill said:
Another thing to consider is how much more efficient a plastic tub in a shelving unit would be than a glass aquarium with screen top. Big difference.
Click to expand...

Excellent point, something I'm going to use to help convince my husband it's time to get a nice rack and scrap all these bulky aquariums....
 
I was thinking about this the other day. When I switched to an averaged electricity billa few years ago, it was running about $105/month. I guess I had one or two snakes with UTHs. Then I got three racks, two cages, six more glass tanks, all with UTHs or heat cable, about four robot vacuums that are always plugged in, two wine regrigerators, a portable AC, a uromastyx in a cage requiring a large amount of heat and lighting, a dragon in a viv requiring only slightly less heat and light than the uro, a dog that has the radio on all day, and a leaky faucet that I can't replace so my pump runs frequently. My bill is now $130 in the heat of the summer. $25/month for all that. I don't think that's too bad. Plus I have to run the AC about 6-8 degrees cooler for the snakes than I would normally set it for myself.
 
Thank you everyone who posted! I did get a UTH the other day and it's working great. The top temperatures top out at about 86. So the thermostat hasn't actually had to do any work yet! Thanks again.
 
Don't trust them without a thermostat! I don't know the hows and whys but I've seen them be just perfect, and then suddenly way beyond perfect and didn't know what caused the difference. Also make sure you're checking that temperature at the HOTTEST place that the snake can reach it- IE under the substrate against the glass etc..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top