Hi everyone.

I'm starting up an insect feeder business. I already have some insects going, but will really start everything when I get back from vacation this week.

My main concern is heating them. Some insects don't need the extra warmth so no need in heating the whole room. I'm going to be using flexwatt heat tape. I have the 11 inch 20 watt flexwatt. I like it alot, but I don't need that big of flexwatt. Most of the room will be filled with racks of the 4 inch (8 watt) flexwatt. Some the 11 inch, but mostly the 4 inch should do it.

The plan is 2-3 shelves with flexwatt to begin with until the business expands a little. About 20 feet of flexwatt per shelf so 60 feet in total.

How much would it cost to run everything if I'm using the 4 inch flexwatt which uses 8 watts. It costs 11.34 cents per kilowatt on avg. In Ohio here.

I would use a couple of thermostats so hopefully it shouldn't be on for more than 18 hours a day, I understand their are variables. Is there a way to figure this out though by knowing how many hours it is on per day (18 hours) and the watts used and the kilowatt that it would cost me in Ohio to pay? I'm looking for a 30 day estimate! Any help is appreciated.

I tried to do my own calculations and got a HUGE number, hopefully I was wrong.

Jeff

MODS: Hopefully it is okay that I posted this here. I understand there is a feeder portion of this website, but this is mainly concerning flexwatt which it seems alot of people know more about this in this section of the website.