How bad is a 250 watt heat lamp bulb on electricity??

Question

I have a shed in my yard that houses my water pump. I have a clap on lamp with a 250 watt heat lamp bulb in it to keep it from freezing. How bad is it on electricity?? I mean is it like running the dryer all day?? Or like the refigerator being plugged in and on, Or a lamp plugged in and on all day. Can I use a regular bulb to keep it from freezing also? If so what watt bulb will keep it unfrozen?? I feel like this is a stupid question but I think I am giving Dominion Power enough money right now to heat my house. All info is appreciated. Thank you

Answer 1

Jim N is right on, except that the electricity rate may be somewhat higher than 10¢ per KWH. Where I live, Southern California Edison charges on a graduated scale, much like the IRS taxes on a graduated scale. The more electricity you use, the higher the rate for the incremental usage. The top rate for residential use is around 30¢ per KWH, which would be $1.80 per day for a 250 watt heat lamp. You'd have to look at your electric bill to see what your incremental rate is.

Besides using heat tape or a heat blanket, another alternative is to leave a cold water faucet turned on so that it is running slowly all day and night. This will keep your system at the temperature of your well water, which will prevent freezing. Unfortunately, you'll use electricity to pump the water, so I don't know whether this would be more economical. But it is something to keep in mind in case your heat lamp burns out.

You need to trade off the cost of the heat lamp versus the cost and inconvenience of having to repair a broken water pump. I'm in favor of the heat lamp.

Answer 2

Average residential rates are around 10 cents per Kilowat hour. Since your 250 watt light is a 1/4 of a kilowatt, it costs about 2.5 center per hour, or 60 cents every 24 hours, or about $18 every 30 days if you run it non-stop. Can't answer the question about the size of the bulb since don't know the specifics. Outside temp, wind, depth of well, etc. However, in this application, the heat lamp is probably better than a regular bulb. Other options would be thermostatically controlled heat tape or, a thermostatically controlled electric heater that would cycle on and off. Conside building an insulated shroud, that would allow even a very small regular bulb to heat the space above freezing. Good Luck

Answer 3

There are 2 kinds of heat lamp - one looks red because it contains a filter to keep much of the visible light from escaping while the other is clear and has a silver reflector and is very bright. I have one of the latter in my bathroom. The red one is thicker glass and gets very hot from absorbing the energy of visible light. The clear one is thinner glass and does not get so hot, but would be painful to touch when on for a while. If you mean how hot will stuff under it get, you have to specify conditions. Lower wattage red heat lamps (150w) are often used in food service where they are aimed down from about 12-15 inches above meat, etc., in trays and they keep the food at a sanitary temperature which I believe is over 150F. If a 250 watt heat lamp of either kind were placed 6" above and aimed at a pine board, I would expect the pine board to scorch and darken in under 5 minutes. Paper placed on such a board would darken, smoke and probably flame in the same time frame which occurs at about 450F Based on my experience, a person could not hold their hand in position at less than a foot from the bulb's face as long as a minute and would show a red first degree "sunburn".

Answer 4

I'm not an expert, but I would imagine that a 250 watt bulb is very bad and expencive to use! Normal light bulbs are approx 40 Watt.... energy saving bulbs are about 9 watts I think!!!?? I would imagine a 250 watt bulb running for a day, would be equivilent to lighting an entire 4-5 bedroom house for 24 hours!

If this is something you must do perminantly or even trough the winter months, have you thought of investing in solar power, just for the water tank. It might cost a bit to install, but will save you a fortune in the long run, and save a bit on our environment. Solar panels will run off light even on cloudy days...not nessessarily the suns rays, it can even store excess energy from summer months.
Other than that....Lagan jackets are made especially for water tanks and boilers...check them out in most hardware shops.

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

about the same as having four 60 watt lamps on all day.

Answer 6

do you got a blanket on the pump get one