Energy consumption

Do small UTH heaters and heat bulbs really use a ton of energy? The electricity bill went up $20 this month, and the only thing that is different is that I'm running 2 repti-therm uth pads, a 1-5 gallon and a 10-20 gallon, a 50 watt bulb buring the day in my leopard gecko's tank, and a 50 watt infrared in my ball python's tank at night.
I didn't realize that such a small setup could increase my utilities by that much.

That seems really odd actually....my neighbour has 3 times that set up, plus 2 tvs, a computer and an xbox all running pretty well 24/7 and his bill is still about the same as mine every month, and i have conciderably less running.....

Yea that doesn't seem like enough stuff to be raising your bill that high. Have you been running your heatr any higher?

If the UTHs are the ones I'm thinking of, where the small one takes 4 watts and the larger one takes 8, and you're running the daylight bulb for 12 hours a day and the night time bulb for 12 hours a night, I'm coming up with a total of 80.64 kilowatt-hours per month.

If you have more accurate information regarding your exact usage, that would help. But take a look at your power bill, and see what they charge you per kilowatt. In my area, due to my lower power usage, they charge me about 9.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. At that rate, your setup would cost me $7.66 per month. BUT, energy rates vary widely depending on where you're at. So take a look at your bill to see what your rate is.

The UTH's generally have pretty low wattage. I would say if it is indeed those items, that it would be the lamps. Also, have to account for the winter time. Maybe you have a drafty door or window(s). If you do think that it is these items, I would suggest the energy saving light bulbs from wal-mart. They only use about 13 watts, cost about 6-8 bucks for 4 of them, and put out the light of a 60w bulb.

My power bill doubled this past month. My normal bill is below $60. I have all energy efficient light bulbs in my 2 br apartment. Two computers with over 600w power supply's that run a good 16+ hours a day combined. Two 32" LCD monitors ( mine and my brothers ), an xbox that see about 3hrs a day play time, and 7 snakes with individual heat pads. I believe it was only high this time because my Central unit would kick on for 15 minutes and be off for 8 minutes before kicking back on again. I have that fixed now to where it runs for 15 minutes and off for 30-45 minutes before kicking back on. So next bill should be back to normal.

Sorry for getting side-tracked, but maybe my 'long-winded-ness' can still help out =)