Monthly Electrical Cost?

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cm11599ps

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 22, 2010
10
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Long Island
I'm not opposed to spending money on items for a large tank such as sand, live rock, livestock, filters, etc. For the most part, these are one time expenses.

My concern lies in the monthly electrical costs. Anyone have electrical estimates on what it costs to run a 300 gallon reef tank monthly?
 
First off how much does electricity cost per kw/h?

The biggest cost of a tank depends on lighting and heating. If you use metal halides which many say offer the best light, they are very power hungry. If you go for a FOWLR tank, which doesn't require as intense lighting, you can get away with efficient T5HO systems and save a lot.

Heating really depends on how much you have to heat the tank. Is your room going to be cold(which requires lots of heat) in the winter or is the air kept in the 70s year round?

You may also find you need a chiller if your room gets to warm in the summer which is an added cost.
 
I'm not sure what amount I'm supposed to be looking at. Here's some info from my bill.


 [FONT=Arial,]Basic Service : 36 day(s) @ $ .1790[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] $ 6.44[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] 300 KWH @ $ .0857[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] 25.71[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] 2224 KWH @ $ .0975[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] 216.84[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] Subtotal[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] 248.99[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] POWER SUPPLY CHARGES[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] 2524 KWH @ $ .093042[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] 234.84[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] Efficiency & Renewables Charge[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] 2524 KWH @ $ .004780[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,] 12.06[/FONT]
 
I reef tank of that size is going to be pretty pricey to run in my experience. Granted, it's all based on types of equipment, electricity costs, etc. I had a 220G FOWLR that was going in the direction of a reef tank and the electricity alone was over $100 a month. I am only judging that on the way the bill dropped when the tank was sold. The metal halides, protein skimmers, heating, power heads all take there toll on the wallet. That doesnt even include the stuff for the saltwater water changes!
 
cm11599ps;4482952; said:
I'm not sure what amount I'm supposed to be looking at. Here's some info from my bill.


[FONT=Arial,]Basic Service : 36 day(s) @ $ .1790[/FONT][FONT=Arial,] $ 6.44[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,]300 KWH @ $ .0857[/FONT][FONT=Arial,] 25.71[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,]2224 KWH @ $ .0975[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,]216.84[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,]Subtotal[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,]248.99[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,]POWER SUPPLY CHARGES[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,]2524 KWH @ $ .093042[/FONT][FONT=Arial,] 234.84[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,]Efficiency & Renewables Charge[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,]2524 KWH @ $ .004780[/FONT][FONT=Arial,] 12.06[/FONT]
Click to expand...
looks like you have day and night rates, go by the day rates to over calculate so .0975

then check out the parts you want and multiply their wattage by 5.04 to get to the monthy kwh usage (5040 hours in a month, 1000watts in a kilawatt so if a device used 1 watt you'd have 5.04 kwh usage for that device each month)

then multiply that number by .0975 to get to how much that device will cost you to run each month. so in the case of that 1w device it will cost you .0975x5.04 or 49 cents to run each month.

come to think of it find the watts of the device and multiply that by 49cents. then you'll have the cost to run the device each month.
 
Ok, so if I'm just multiplying Watts for .49 then let's see how this works.

I currently have a 55 cichlid tank running 2 Aquaclear 500/110 filters. It says those filters are 14 Watts each which means it costs roughly $14 a month to run those 2 filters.

I've also got a heater and a standard 48" light that has 2 20" or so bulbs which runs for about 10 hours a day. Last but not least is the air pump driving my 2 LED bubble wands. These bubbles wands each have 6 blue LED's and are only used for my moonlighting.

So if you take this tank I'm assuming it's costing me over $20 a month in electricity to run. Sound right?

FWIW, I also have a kegerator so that I can have cold beer on tap whenever I want. That says it's 100 Watts which I assume means it's $49 a month to run. I've also got a little fan on inside the kegerator to help circulate the cold air around. That's gotta be another few bucks per month.

If these calculations are correct then I'm spending about $75-$80 a month between my current 55 tank and my kegerator. If I tear down my 55 and get rid of the kegerator then the price of running the new larger tank doesn't seem so bad.
 
yogurt_21;4485205; said:
looks like you have day and night rates, go by the day rates to over calculate so .0975

then check out the parts you want and multiply their wattage by 5.04 to get to the monthy kwh usage (5040 hours in a month, 1000watts in a kilawatt so if a device used 1 watt you'd have 5.04 kwh usage for that device each month)

then multiply that number by .0975 to get to how much that device will cost you to run each month. so in the case of that 1w device it will cost you .0975x5.04 or 49 cents to run each month.

come to think of it find the watts of the device and multiply that by 49cents. then you'll have the cost to run the device each month.
Click to expand...

24 hours x 30 days = 5040 hours? :ROFL:
 
12 Volt Man;4486154; said:
^

something is wrong with the math here.

using your rate of $0.0975 per kwh, two 14w aquaclears would cost:

28w = 0.028kw.

0.028kw * $0.0975 per kwh * 24h/d * 30 days per month = $1.96 per month to run both filters.

not $14...
Click to expand...


lol, so then it costs about $7.02 per month to run my 100W kegerator?
 
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